EU tells UK government to hit play and record

As part of a "know your digital rights guide" launch, Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Meglena Kuneva, the EU Consumer Commissioner called on the UK to allow personal copying to help harmonise copyright rules across Europe:

Reding and Kuneva want to go further with a "digital agenda" for the future. This includes addressing the online music market, attacking the spam problem, mandating better privacy policy disclosure, and smoothing out "private copying" inconsistencies.

Of course, not even the Blakeys who run the IFPI would ever try to bring a legal action against a UK citizen for ripping a CD they'd bought to their own computer or iPod, so it would be more a tidying up rather than the granting of a fabulous new legal right.

And, given how the IFPI is turning slightly more Kurtz than Blakey, it might be just as well to have some legislation to fall back on.