Copyright law needs change for it to be ignored properly, says review

A government review has recommended that outdated copyright legislation should be reformed so that it can be properly brushed aside in the 21st century.

The Hargreaves Report has found that approximately 100% of the population has illegally burned a CD or DVD in the last five years, but that only 98% of those realise that what they are doing is against the law.

A lengthy and expensive amendments process has now been encouraged so that everyone can be aware of what they can pretend to be unaware of in the highly unlikely event that they are caught.

“Most people are behaving like the current law doesn’t exist because they consider it even less important than the police do,” author Professor Ian Hargreaves explained.

“Which is probably not surprising as it’s ‘not a serious law’ in the Ken Clarke sense of things.”

Copyright to be easier to ignore

Hargreaves continued, “Unfortunately, there are some people who are acting like the law is not there simply because they don’t know that it’s there.”

“These are probably the same small group who are unaware that it’s illegal for a Scotsman to be drunk while in possession of a cow, or that you can only kill a Welshman in Chester with a crossbow after sunset.”

“But we’ve all broken these laws, so the rules should be clear enough that we know when we’re doing it.”