Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
OK, as promised, here we are. Section 17 of the Act is what prohibits unauthorised downloading of digital material:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/17
(Emphasis mine)
When you download something from the Internet you are "reproducing the work" and "storing it by electronic means".
As I said last night, the portion of the Act that you quoted refers to the import of physical goods that are pirated or counterfeit.
Hope that helps, |
I believe that you are misinterpreting this. As I have pointed out, both my own country's and yours allow the downloading of copyright material provided it is for domestic and private use (i.e. it is not shared). That legislation is plain as day and so beyond challenging.
The legislation you refer to is for the cases along the lines of the copier, that in the download of an eBook sense is the person who made the copy and provided it for sharing. The section you rely on is in regards to the primary infringements, the next section covering secondary infringement makes it perfectly clear that downloading is permitted for domestic and private use. If one was to take your interpretation of the clause you rely on as being all encompassing you would not be allowed to take a photograph for your own private use of a piece of art one had on ones wall.
Now I know, but have not paid attention to so cannot expand, there has been some issue in the UK regarding making personal copies of digital media and that may have some affect in all this (I am not making any claim one way or the other and it may be resolved) and this may have even sprung from the legislation that you quote which, on the face of it if considered alone without looking at other possible affecting legislation, means that one cannot make backup or portable MP3 copies of ones CD collection, for example.
Now if that is still the case (and of course it does not matter to me if it is
) I would suggest that the law is an ass because it will be ignored by most of those aware of it and unwittingly broken by those who aren't. It is also an ass because if the action arising from the law is civil then the burden of collecting and presenting proof is beyond contemplation (unlike it is for torrents) and if it is criminal then I suspect that the law has better things to do than run around checking people's computers and eReaders for possible illicit copies and then proving that they were in fact illicit.
In the end both your legislation (which was quoted in earlier posts) and my own specifically allows downloading of copyright material for private and domestic use which excludes sharing. While I do not rely on the news media I have had a brief search through UK media and from that I can see the discussion regarding the illegality of downloading specifically states torrents (where, of course, the downloader shares) or is plainly referring to that.
I'll leave it at that, I guess we will just have to disagree.