Fair Use of Pre-recorded media

To:  The European Parliament, The UK House Of Commons, The UK House Of Lords, The US Senate, The US House Of Representatives

We, the undersigned, believe that the EU Copyright directives and the UK Copyright and related rights act (2003), along with the proposed legislation before the European Parliament - The European Union Directive for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights", are unjust and unfair inasmuch as they make it a criminal offence to restore damaged Vinyl records to a CD for the Personal Use of the owner of the records.
We believe that if the record is either damaged so much as to be unplayable, then the owner should have the right to have it resored to a condition where it can again be enjoyed by it's owner. Nowhere, when you buy a record, is there any mention that it will not last a minimum amount of time, and as the technology to restore these discs to Digital form exists, how can it be an offence to use it? We are not advocating mass copying. Indeed, if the original were already available on Digital media, then it would be far better to buy it again and certainly far cheaper. We do not advocate mass copying or Piracy, merely the right to enjoy items we have paid good money for. Unfortunately, nearly all these releases are not available again and there are no plans to make them available.
It is perfectly reasonable for the restoration company to put in Copy Protection measures, but to prevent this type of restoration would surely have to also prevent Vintage car restoration, Olsd furniture restoration etc. yet nobody is planning to do this. Why single out music?
We propose an amendment to these laws that will make this a legal right on the grounds of Fair Use of the product that has already been legally bought and paid for.
We also object to the copyright holders being given the power to raid homes, confiscate equipment and freeze bank accounts as this should be left to the Police and/or customs & Excise.
Details of the proposed legislation can be found at http://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/update20040223_en.shtml
The US view is at http://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/usgovt_EUIPRED.html

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Fair Use of Pre-recorded media Petition to The European Parliament, The UK House Of Commons, The UK House Of Lords, The US Senate, The US House Of Representatives was created by and written by Neil Wilkes.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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