Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Is it legal to copy DVDs and CDs to my PC?

I thought not. For a number of reasons. Firstly I thought it was illegal to copy something that is copyrighted. Then I hear I can backup for personal use. That sounds like a stretch to me too, because if you "backup"you don't typically exclusively use the "backup" - you use the source, and only resort to the backup if the primary fails.

However, I came across this today: From this google groups post I see that The Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 section 197 [click here] declares that a copy "for private purposes" is not an illicit recording, and thus any action under the CDPA against me for making a copy of a CD or DVD for my own private use would fail.

Turns out it's legal after all. I'll carry on as before then.

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