Extract from todays news:
"It could now be illegal to make a compilation of your favourite tunes under new copyright laws - and soon even tougher measures could be introduced.
What we can do with the CDs, DVDs and videos lining our shelves has changed this month - the law now takes a dim view of anyone who copies, or attempts to change.
For this month, the European copyright directive has come into force in the UK. This puts in place legal protection for companies that try to protect copyrighted products with what is known as a digital rights management (DRM) system - examples include putting errors in music CDs so computer drives can't play them, or locking software until the customer registers online to prove they have permission to use it.
The UK's version of the directive is called the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, and it is being implemented 10 months late. Controversy over the scope of the directive has delayed its implementation in many other European nations, and nine member states have yet to introduce their own versions.
While much of what home users do with their CDs, DVDs and videos could now be legally questionable, the directive is instead aimed at large-scale privacy outfits, says Francisco Mingorance, the director of public policy at the Business Software Alliance, which co-ordinates anti-piracy work at many hi-tech firms.
The zeal of these counterfeiters means that up to one in three CDs sold is a pirate copy, according to a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
Mr Mingorance says the directive gave long awaited legal protection to the devices BSA members use to guard against piracy. This means that many music and movie makers are more likely to make their wares available online as locking devices now have legal protection.
But others are not so sure the directive is a positive step. Julian Midgley, the head of the Campaign for Digital Rights, says in some respects nothing has changed.
"It makes no difference to the basics - copyright infringement is still copyright infringement and you are as liable as you were before."
But, says Mr Midgley, the important point about the directive is that it establishes in the minds of copyright owners that DRM systems work, albeit not in the way the EU intended.
In the US, the laws put in place to protect DRM systems are being used as competitive tools. Some firms have put trivial locking devices into their software to stop reverse engineering of their products, says Mr Midgley.
The new copyright laws also mean that many of the things we are used to doing, such as playing a music CD on a computer drive or copying tracks to an MP3 player, now fall into a legal grey area.
Before the directive was passed, circumventing the copy-protection device - which could be as simple a matter as putting a black pen mark around the edge of the disk - was tolerated. But now that is a breach of the law, even though you otherwise have the right to listen to that CD.
Some have pointed out that fast-forwarding through the ads at the start of a DVD now contravenes the law. And using a file-sharing service is an infringement, although one that, as yet, is likely to go unpunished.
But maybe not for long. The EU is building these copyright laws into another, the European Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive, which will give even more powers to copyright owners to protect their creations. This will criminalise all efforts to break copyright, even trivial ones.
And that could mean you, with that compilation of your favourite tracks. "
Full Version: Doom, Gloom and Copying Boom!
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Lol - it's a wonder they find time to prosecute conventional criminals 
Oh dear! Me head!!!!!
More news … more news … more news… more news
News Extract:
“Technology analyst Bill Thompson is only one of millions of file sharers who will be turned into criminals by a new European law.
Last Tuesday, in committee room A3G-3 of the Altiero Spinelli building of the European Parliament, just across the road from Gare Leopold in Brussels, a group of MEPs and administrators gathered to hear Janelly Fourtou argue that I should be sent to prison.
Of course, they didn't mention me by name, but Ms Fourtou, an MEP and the driving force behind the European Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive, wants to make a criminal of anyone who uses peer-to-peer networking software to share unlicensed copies of music, movies and other products of the entertainment industry.
Since I've got KaZaA on my laptop, and have been known both to download remixes of the White Stripes or old Velvet Underground numbers (please don't judge me too harshly - it's my age), and to share the occasional file that might be lying on my hard drive, that means me.
It probably means you as well, if you're a regular internet user who has realised that there is a lot of old music out there that you simply can't find in record stores, but is easily available over one or other of the P2P networks.
Criminal class
The IP Enforcement Directive is the latest of a whole batch of internet-related legislative proposals to have come out of Brussels this year.
We've had the Copyright Directive, a directive covering direct marketing and spam email, and proposals to allow software to be patented.
Since the IP Directive was first proposed in January it has attracted a great deal of attention, and a lot of adverse criticism, because it would provide the same sort of legal protection to copyright holders in Europe as they currently have under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States.
This means that anyone who thinks that their copyrights are being breached could use the courts to obtain personal information from internet service providers or web hosting companies.
It also means that breaking technical copyright protection measures for any reason, even if it is to make a legally-permissible copy of a file for backup purposes, would itself be illegal.
In theory, harmonising the way copyright is protected throughout the EU is a good thing.
As a writer I rely on copyright law to ensure that I get paid for the things I publish, and I do not want to see copyright disappear because of the ease of online file copying.
But any new law should attempt to balance the interests of rights holders, whether they are large multinational corporations or individuals, and those of the wider community.
We should never forget that copyright and patents are a bargain, a deal between the people and the creators of anything from a story to a song to a great film, and the bargain needs to work for both sides.
It is probably not a coincidence that Janelly Fourtou, the MEP who is pushing the current draft directive forward, is married to Jean-Rene Fourtou, the Chairman of Vivendi, one of the world's largest media corporations.
All of the proposals she has made, especially the suggestion that even non-commercial file sharing over P2P networks should be a criminal act, favour large corporations like the one her husband works for.
Fortunately, the Directive has a long way to go before it is accepted, and even then member governments have to apply it in their national law, which always takes a while - the EU Directive on Copyright Protection was only implemented in UK law this month.
In the UK, the Patent Office has just announced a consultation on the draft IP enforcement directive, which runs until January 12.
That might seem to be rather too late, since the Council of Ministers plans to discuss the Directive on December 15, but these timetables are always rather flexible and there are a lot of steps to go through before a directive becomes community law.
The obvious first step is to respond to the Patent Office request for input.
However, its ability to disregard comments that do not fit with the government's agenda was clearly demonstrated when the protests about the EU Copyright Directive were ignored, so that the law we got was effectively the one that was initially proposed despite the extensive 'consultation'.
It may be better to work with campaigning groups like CODE and ffii (the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure), both of which are arguing strongly against these measures.
Their recent success in delaying the vote on whether software patents should be allowed in Europe shows that the legislators can be influenced.
It is also important to press for changes before the Directive is finalised, since national governments have limited scope for changing things after that point.
I don't want to go to jail just because I share a few songs online in the way that I've shared cassette tapes and videos for years, and I don't see why copyrights in music, movies or software should be enforced with criminal sanctions when my rights to make reasonable and fair use of the same material are taken away from me.
If I was sitting in a warehouse in Bristol making thousands of copies of the new Sophie Ellis-Bextor album, then I'd hold my hands up when the police came knocking at the door, but making a copy so my daughter can listen to it on her own CD player doesn't seem like breaking the law to me.
Or, I suspect, to many other people outside the record industry.
Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital.”
News Extract:
“Technology analyst Bill Thompson is only one of millions of file sharers who will be turned into criminals by a new European law.
Last Tuesday, in committee room A3G-3 of the Altiero Spinelli building of the European Parliament, just across the road from Gare Leopold in Brussels, a group of MEPs and administrators gathered to hear Janelly Fourtou argue that I should be sent to prison.
Of course, they didn't mention me by name, but Ms Fourtou, an MEP and the driving force behind the European Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive, wants to make a criminal of anyone who uses peer-to-peer networking software to share unlicensed copies of music, movies and other products of the entertainment industry.
Since I've got KaZaA on my laptop, and have been known both to download remixes of the White Stripes or old Velvet Underground numbers (please don't judge me too harshly - it's my age), and to share the occasional file that might be lying on my hard drive, that means me.
It probably means you as well, if you're a regular internet user who has realised that there is a lot of old music out there that you simply can't find in record stores, but is easily available over one or other of the P2P networks.
Criminal class
The IP Enforcement Directive is the latest of a whole batch of internet-related legislative proposals to have come out of Brussels this year.
We've had the Copyright Directive, a directive covering direct marketing and spam email, and proposals to allow software to be patented.
Since the IP Directive was first proposed in January it has attracted a great deal of attention, and a lot of adverse criticism, because it would provide the same sort of legal protection to copyright holders in Europe as they currently have under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States.
This means that anyone who thinks that their copyrights are being breached could use the courts to obtain personal information from internet service providers or web hosting companies.
It also means that breaking technical copyright protection measures for any reason, even if it is to make a legally-permissible copy of a file for backup purposes, would itself be illegal.
In theory, harmonising the way copyright is protected throughout the EU is a good thing.
As a writer I rely on copyright law to ensure that I get paid for the things I publish, and I do not want to see copyright disappear because of the ease of online file copying.
But any new law should attempt to balance the interests of rights holders, whether they are large multinational corporations or individuals, and those of the wider community.
We should never forget that copyright and patents are a bargain, a deal between the people and the creators of anything from a story to a song to a great film, and the bargain needs to work for both sides.
It is probably not a coincidence that Janelly Fourtou, the MEP who is pushing the current draft directive forward, is married to Jean-Rene Fourtou, the Chairman of Vivendi, one of the world's largest media corporations.
All of the proposals she has made, especially the suggestion that even non-commercial file sharing over P2P networks should be a criminal act, favour large corporations like the one her husband works for.
Fortunately, the Directive has a long way to go before it is accepted, and even then member governments have to apply it in their national law, which always takes a while - the EU Directive on Copyright Protection was only implemented in UK law this month.
In the UK, the Patent Office has just announced a consultation on the draft IP enforcement directive, which runs until January 12.
That might seem to be rather too late, since the Council of Ministers plans to discuss the Directive on December 15, but these timetables are always rather flexible and there are a lot of steps to go through before a directive becomes community law.
The obvious first step is to respond to the Patent Office request for input.
However, its ability to disregard comments that do not fit with the government's agenda was clearly demonstrated when the protests about the EU Copyright Directive were ignored, so that the law we got was effectively the one that was initially proposed despite the extensive 'consultation'.
It may be better to work with campaigning groups like CODE and ffii (the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure), both of which are arguing strongly against these measures.
Their recent success in delaying the vote on whether software patents should be allowed in Europe shows that the legislators can be influenced.
It is also important to press for changes before the Directive is finalised, since national governments have limited scope for changing things after that point.
I don't want to go to jail just because I share a few songs online in the way that I've shared cassette tapes and videos for years, and I don't see why copyrights in music, movies or software should be enforced with criminal sanctions when my rights to make reasonable and fair use of the same material are taken away from me.
If I was sitting in a warehouse in Bristol making thousands of copies of the new Sophie Ellis-Bextor album, then I'd hold my hands up when the police came knocking at the door, but making a copy so my daughter can listen to it on her own CD player doesn't seem like breaking the law to me.
Or, I suspect, to many other people outside the record industry.
Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital.”
Dan,
What are you reading? ( and I dont mean that sarcastically)
What are you reading? ( and I dont mean that sarcastically)
Dan's back by the way folks! 
Yeah - I'm back.......but not with a vengence!!!!!!
I was only just saying on a msn mssg a moment ago, that I wonder how long before the poor DJ entertainer will be seized upon for using backed up music??
I'll be following this story development at a distance....but not toooooo distant, if yer know wot I mean.
I was only just saying on a msn mssg a moment ago, that I wonder how long before the poor DJ entertainer will be seized upon for using backed up music??
I'll be following this story development at a distance....but not toooooo distant, if yer know wot I mean.
Plan B into operation, I will go and put a mask on, rob a bank, steal all the money. This will be done on a Saturday evening at around 10.30pm and all the enforcement officers will be at your discos trying to catch you out and I will get away with it !!!
There is a way around it and it's called SG6. I haven't got all the details yet, might be a week or two - but watch this space.................
Sounds like a new lighting effect to me! SG6 ?????
Will this be to go with our new exorbitantly priced ID cards which we will have to carry to get any work at all??
How many part-timers will then drop out to only doing private functions leaving all pubs clubs and corporate work to the true professionals who don't mind paying tax and insurance?
Sin
Will this be to go with our new exorbitantly priced ID cards which we will have to carry to get any work at all??
How many part-timers will then drop out to only doing private functions leaving all pubs clubs and corporate work to the true professionals who don't mind paying tax and insurance?
Sin
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