The Government are planning to reform copyright laws which will finally make ripping music from CDs legal for the first time ever.

Currently it is technically illegal to create digital copies of music from CDs to allow transfer onto MP3 players but the Government’s Business Secretary Vince Cable has said: "Bringing the law into line with ordinary people's reasonable expectations will boost respect for copyright, on which our creative industries rely."

Of course, the entire reasoning behind the revision of the laws is that the general public will develop a healthier respect for copyright which obviously in the long term will benefit people in the industry.

The proposed measures that will allow the copying of music for personal use, parody and teachers to use for educational purposes have come under fire from songwriters who believe that it will enable people to use music without requiring permission from the artists.

Artists under the current laws can claim compensation from consumers or device manufacturers for the use of their music but would be unable to under the new proposed laws.

To compensate for this, songwriters are pushing the Government to create a so called “iPod tax” which would mean that manufacturers operating in the EU would have to pay out to the artists so that they don’t lose out.

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