It is now officially illegal for anyone to rip music from CDs in the UK, even if it is just for personal use.

Last month, the high court made the ruling reasoning that being able to rip music goes against copyright laws.

A spokesperson said: "It is now unlawful to make private copies of copyright works you own, without permission from the copyright holder - this includes format shifting from one medium to another.

"As this is a complex area of law, the government is carefully considering the implications of the ruling and the available options, before deciding any future course of action.

"The government is not aware of any cases of copyright holders having prosecuted individuals for format shifting music solely for their own personal use."

The implications of this new law is that the rather arbitrary act of ripping your music to create your own CDs is now a criminal offence though are we really all going to be hauled off to prison?
By their own admission, no one has yet been prosecuted and in honesty, it would probably be very difficult for the police to do so.

So really, is this law going to change anything for music fans? I will admit I can’t see that making this act illegal is going to perturb me at all. I only ever rip music that I have legally bought for my own use and it is the old childish thing of certain people ruining it for everyone else that seems to have lead to this law.

Admittedly, there will always be people out there that make borderline ridiculous laws such as this necessary but I can’t see it impacting the average music fan all that much.

By Sarah Marie Jones