Tougher UK Copyright Laws Come Into Effect

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

04 November 2003

New copyright laws implementing the EU's Copyright Directive came into effect in the United Kingdom on Friday, nearly eleven months after the deadline for the changes to be made.

Under the terms of the new legislation, drafted by the UK's Patent Office, copyright holders will be able to take legal action against those who circumvent technological protection measures (TPMs), which are put in place in order to prevent unauthorised copies of protected works or products from being made.

The right of copyright holders to place unique codes within their works, in order to trace any breaches back to the original purchaser of the product is also protected under the new UK law.

Some observers have suggested that the UK legislation also narrows the definition of 'fair use' of a copyrighted work, and have expressed concerns at the criminalisation of the use of file sharing services such as Kazaa to make collections of MP3s available to others.

However, speaking to Reuters, a spokesman for the Patent Office explained that this change was not intended to target individual users of file sharing services:

"This law is aimed at the most dangerous activity, the organised crime gangs with warehouses of pirated materials. It is not meant to bring criminal charges to individual downloaders," he announced, although he added that individual UK users of such services still face civil penalties if caught.

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