You see, it's claims like this that give the music industry a bad name. The German record industry has failed in an attempt to make digital private copying illegal.
Under current German copyright rules there is nothing to stop consumers from ripping tracks off CDs to their PC or iPod, providing the copies are for private use. In the UK all private copying is illegal, while in some other European countries it is allowed but a levy is charged on recording devices such as blank tapes and CDR - though proposals to apply a similar levy to iPods etc has proved controversial.
During the 2006 Gowers Review of British copyright law record label trade body the BPI admitted the ban on private copying was a silly law, and that no content owner would ever take action against someone who broke it. Still, some in the UK music industry have still proposed introducing a licence, paid by digital music player manufacturers, to compensate them if and when the private copying ban is removed, a variation on the aforementioned European levy system.
Those proposals, and the German industry's efforts to make digital private copying illegal there, are both a bit dim. You can't stop anyone from making private copies, and trying to enforce a new licence or levy for private copying will once again pit the music industry against the PR skills of Apple et al, the result of which will be everyone hating the music industry even more: why should iPod owners who only buy their music off iTunes be paying a levy for private copies they never make? And anyway, given CD sales are in terminal decline the commercial value of any levy will be limited and have a very short life-span, as it will soon become redundant.
All that said, the German record industry's efforts to make digital private copying illegal failed not because of the proposal's dimness, but because of legal technicalities. The German law that allows users to make digital copies of CDs for private use was first confirmed in 2003, and then reconfirmed in 2008.
The major record companies filed a complaint to the German Federal Constitutional Court on the issue last December. But said Court says that any complaint of this kind must be filed within twelve months of a law being passed, and that this law, while confirmed in 2008, was passed in 2003. Therefore the record industry's window of opportunity to complain passed in 2004.
Needless to say, Stefan Michalk, as MD of German record industry body BVMI was not impressed by the decision. He told reporters: "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".
As previously reported, the BVMI recently said it was optimistic about the country's recently appointed government's promises to tackle online piracy, even though they have so far ruled out a three-strikes system like that being introduced in the UK and France.