By way of follow up to our post on 8 May on the new UK copyright exceptions, the government has confirmed that the new exception for personal copies for private use (and another new exception allowing use of a copyright work for the purposes of caricature, parody and pastiche) will, in fact, be implemented. It had been rumoured that these two new exceptions had been dropped at the eleventh hour. The government wants additional time to scrutinise the implementing legislation so these two exceptions will not come into force on 1 June as originally envisaged. It is likely they will be implemented in October 2014 but it is possible that implementation could be delayed beyond the next UK General Election, scheduled for May 2015. There has been no official announcement on timing as yet but further posts will follow as more information becomes available. Copyright holders are likely to be pleased by these delays. In the coming months, it will remain illegal for consumers to format-shift copyright works (such as CDs and DVDs) they have purchased.
