IT Cloud has a silver lining for file sharers

GOOGLE and Amazon will soon permit consumers to store back-upfiles of their music and film libraries in an internet "cloud",after the government announced sweeping changes to the copyrightlaws.Unlike most countries, Britain's current intellectual propertyregime makes it technically illegal to transfer content from CDs orDVDs on to a different format, such as an MP3 file on acomputer.However, Business Secretary Vince Cable is expected toannounce today that he will legislate to sweep away theserestrictions. The move would make it legal for consumers to build uppersonal libraries of music, videos and films on their homecomputers and transfer them on to devices such as iPods - asmillions already do without being aware that they are technicallybreaking the law.The move will also clear the way for companies suchas Google and Amazon to develop online content storage systems forUK consumers, allowing them to create back-up files of music andfilm libraries in the Cloud system on the internet, allowingmaterial to be retrieved even if their own computer or MP3 player isstolen or lost.The reforms are also expected to make it legal forindividuals to burn copies of purchased content for other familymembers to use.However, sharing files of copyrighted material overthe internet is expected to remain illegal.Mr Cable is also expectedto give legal protection to internet spoofs of famous chart hits andmovie blockbusters.Legislation to protect parodies would prevent thekind of legal challenge which forced the makers of YouTube hitNewport State of Mind - which relocated Jay-Z's Empire State of Mindfrom New York to south Wales - to remove it from the video-sharingsite.Mr Cable said: "We are determined to explore how exceptions tocopyright can benefit the UK economy and support growth. Privatecopying is carried out by millions of people, and many areastonished that it is illegal in this country. We need to bringcopyright into line with people's expectations for the moderndigital world. This will free up innovative British businesses todevelop new consumer technology and help boost economicgrowth."Susan Heaton Wright, a music consultant and director of VivaLive Music, said she appreciated that it was necessary for the lawto move with the times, but had concerns that musicians would stilllose out."In the past if you had a book it was prohibited tophotocopy pages to give to other people," she said. "Today you canbuy an album and make multiple copies of it on various systems and,in the future, you will be able store it in the Cloud. I just thinkthat there should be a nominal charge for storing in the Cloud.Music should be paid for."Mr Cable is also expected to endorse manyof the major recommendations made by Professor Ian Hargreaves whohas conducted a review into copyright which will be published today.In a speech at a conference organised by the Alliance Against IPTheft, Mr Cable will highlight out of date restrictions as"obstacles to important research".