German Court Upholds Legal CD Copy Laws

The German Federal Constitutional Court recently upheld the decision that one is legally allowed to digitally copy CDs for their private use. The German music industry filed a challenge with the court in hopes of having the law overturned. The original law was passed in 2003 and stated that an individual is allowed to make a copy, but the law was later revised in 2008. The case was dismissed based on the fact that any claims had to be made within a year, meaning by 2004, and the industry folk were a few years late. The lawyers were hoping to pull a fast one and take the case to court because of the law revision that occurred last year. However, that part of the law that was revised didn’t have anything to do with the allowance of individuals to make copies.

Stefan Michalk, the director of the Association of the German Music Industry stated,

“The interpretation of the German Federal Constitutional Court is controversial, also among experts of German constitutional law…Before filing the claim we were aware of the risks, but we had to take our chance because the fact of whether private copying is legal or not is of such a big importance for the record business. For us it is still very questionable that the court refused our claim for formal reasons.”

It doesn’t seem right that one cannot be allowed to make a copy of one’s own property. At least it is nice to see that the courts are uphold the law. This might not do much good for those of us within the U.S., but those in Germany can enjoy it. The good thing is that at least we are making headway. It will be interesting to see how the courts respond to these issues regarding technology and copyrights for artists.

What do you think of all this?

Source: ZeroPaid