Re: UK Copyright,, ripping CDs, iPOD owning MPs?

Edward Welbourne wrote:
> Speaking of which, if I do the copying while in Norway (where I believe
> it's legal), am I alowed to bring it all back to the UK, if I ever move
> back again ?  Or do I need to use a steganographic hard drive ...

Out here in Peru, it is almost impossible to buy originals of
anything.  Only illegal but pretty well-made copies.  This applies to
CDs, DVDs and even books.  There are places where you can leave a
book, and they will copy it and bind it up for you for the next day --
apart from the well-made bulk (presumably illegal) reprints of titles.

There is also a refreshing lack of respect for IPR in many other
aspects of Peruvian life.  For example it is not unusual to see
pictures of movie stars (with pink tints, or whatever) in
hairdresser's windows.  Let's hope this doesn't change any time soon.

One down-aspect of all this is that there are almost no cinemas here
-- everything comes out on copied DVD or VCD as soon as someone can
get their hands on it -- even if it has russian subtitles.

In Peru they also almost universally use many economic tricks that I'm
sure businesses in the US/UK would *love* to use, if only they could.
For example, almost nothing is priced here, so you have to ask the
price.  The price you are quoted depends on how gullible you look --
true individual-case differential pricing.  The workforce required to
implement this is huge, but there it is.

Another aspect is that everyone copies everyone else in the
marketplace.  If someone comes up with a bright idea for a new
product, then within a couple of weeks everyone is making them.  This
happens because almost everything is made by individual craftsmen or
family businesses.  This also is somewhat affected by the locality --
in one locale everyone will make things in one way.  In another, it
will be another way.  One side-effect is that you know what you are
getting -- the standard "Cusque=F1o" breakfast, for example, or the
standard hand-patted cheese, even though each of those people making
those things could very easily do it some other, more interesting way.
No need for huge brands to maintain product conformity.

Even the music is copied -- I have some Peruvian music from the 60s
and 70s, and it is hilariously (to me anyway) ripped off from all the
Western artists of the time -- from Tom Jones to Abba -- all with a
weird Peruvian spin on the whole thing.  (That is not to say that they
don't have their own very unique and interesting music here -- they
do, but it is the "ripping off" aspect that is interesting to me.)

Well, this is all very different from the UK, where somehow or other
someone persuaded the police that these kinds of laws were worth
enforcing.  The police in Peru have better things to be doing (or NOT
as the case may be).

Jim

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