Yesterday a new copyright law in the United Kingdom came in effect that allows users to make copies of ebooks, music and movies they legally bought. Also conversion to other formats is now covered by the new law and legal. While one might think it's now legal to make backups of movies, one clause pretty much renders the entire law useless.
It's still not allowed to circumvent any copy protection on music, movies and ebooks. The UK's Intellectual Property Office(IPO) has posted a PDF file on their website outlining what's allowed and still illegal according to the new law. Recording of streaming media is also forbidden and also making copies of movies or music you've rented or borrowed.
The PDF states, "Copyright law has been changed to allow you to make personal copies of media (ebooks, digital music or video files etc) you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup. Before this change to the law, it was not legal to copy music that you bought on a CD onto your MP3 player. The changes, which apply from 1 October, update copyright law to make this legal, as long as you own what you are copying, e.g. a music album, and the copy you make is for your own private use."
While that appears to be pretty fair, a couple of paragraphs later the PDF reads, "However, you should note that media, such as DVDs and e-books, can still be protected by technology which physically prevents copying and circumvention of such technology remains illegal."
Currently pretty much all commercial DVDs and Blu-ray movies are protected by copy protections, often ebooks also contain some form of DRM. Under the new law it would only be legal to make copies for personal use or convert the movies to another format if they didn't contain a copy protection.
Also making backups of media containing software appears to be still illegal under the law, the PDF states about this, "The exception [to copyright] applies to any copies you have bought, other than computer programs."
The website of the IPO contains several more PDF files outlining the new copyright law for consumers, educational institutes, disabled people, and content creators. Check them out there.
