Is it against UK copyright laws to transfer music from your own CD's to your MP3 player?

Question

A friend said they had heard it on the radio

Answer 1

No its not against the law if you have the original cd

Answer 2

Probably but most people do it. At the end of the day you have purchased the CD so why should you have to pay again for the song.

Answer 3

Under copyright law in the UK it is an offence to make a copy of material that is owned by others without the permission of the owner. However, making a copy "for personal use" is generally overlooked in law providing that there's no evidence of abusing this principle or gaining from doing so commercially. The fact that you might own the original is irrelevant - read the small-print around the middle of the CD for proof!

Answer 4

Strictly speaking,yes it is illegal. You can "own" the CD but you cannot "own" the music on it.

However,unless you plug your MP3 player into a public address system then there is no way that anyone could enforce that law and this is recognised by the performing rights people.

Answer 5

What the law actually states is this:

"It is permitted to make a single copy of recorded material onto a non-permanent (erasable) storage system, such as a CD-RW, computer hard disk or mp3 player.

It is not permitted to make any copies of recorded material onto a permanent (non-erasable) storage system, such as a CD-R.  This ruling applies even if an original copy of the source material is owned."

This has been law since October 2003, under the European Union Copyright Directive (E.U.C.D.).  This is the same law that make chipping Sky boxes, and games consoles illegal, too.

It's surprising how many people are unaware of it...

Answer 6

No, because you own the CD, you payed for it, so it's completely legal since it's yours.