The Patent Office has issued a statement confirming that draft
legislation to implement the new EU Copyright Directive in the UK
will be delayed until spring 2002. Previously, the Patent Office
had pledged to have a draft Statutory Instrument ready by the end
of 2001. The Directive must be implemented in every Member State,
by 22 December 2002.
The new law covers the rights of reproduction, communication to
the public, distribution, the legal protection of anti-copying
devices and rights management systems.
Among other things, the Directive will close a loophole in
European law through which file swapping services could fall. It
states that consumers will be allowed to reproduce material they
already own but will be prevented from distributing unlimited
numbers of copies or selling them.
In practical terms, this probably means that a computer user
could take his or her music CD and convert a song to MP3 format
then e-mail the MP3 file to a friend; but he or she would not be
entitled to distribute that file on a service such as that for
which Napster became famous, giving access to an unlimited number
of music fans.
