MPs Demand Enquiry On MP3s

The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group has released its report on online downloads and has called on the Office of Fair Trading to "hasten the introduction of labelling regulations that would let people know what they can do with music and movies they buy online or offline. This would ensure that it was "crystal clear" to consumers what freedom they have to use the content they are purchasing and what would happen if they do something outlawed by the protection system."

They also called on the Department of Trade and Industry to look into the prices charged for the same digital content, such as music tracks, in different countries.

Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group which campaigns on digital rights issues, said the organisation was pleased that the MPs had made a series of "sensible recommendations". But, she added, the group could have gone further to combat the ways that copy protection systems impinge on rights to use copyrighted material protected by law.

For instance, she said, UK law allows people to make copies of parts of copyrighted works for the purposes of critiquing or reviewing them. "That's an exemption thwarted by DRM systems," she said. "The technologies are extending beyond the law they are supposed to uphold." Increasingly, said Ms Charman, consumers were bumping up against DRM technologies as they use digital media such as downloaded songs. She said that DRM was less about protecting copyright and more about creating a system in which people rent rather than own the media they spend money on. "We think people rightly feel that once they buy something, it stays bought," she said. (BBC)