Landmark

UK music fans can copy own tracks is the message from Peter Jamieson, of the Britsih Phonographic Industry.

We believe that we now need to make a clear and public distinction between copying for your own use and copying for dissemination to third parties

This is great news, for a couple of reasons:

• I can now backup my music collection digitally without fear of prosecution. This is especially important as my collection numbers a few thousand vinyl, CD and digital tracks. Which would have previously been grounds for prosecution.


• I can take CD copies of digital/vinyl out to DJ with, which means burning custom compilations for that purpose is n longer illegal.

Actually, the last statement brings up an important point. A while ago I was ranting about the BPI and the DJ lisense, well, doesn't this announcement allow DJs to keep their collections safe? I bet the BPI will probably argue that "for personal use" excludes DJs, but as more and more people are playing with music on their computers, their phones and online I think their money grab will have to cease and they'll be forced to issue another statement allowing DJs the right to move the music they own between formats to enable them to DJ and also maintain their collection safely.