As of June 1, 2014 it will be legal for those who have bought a CD, or any other form of media, to rip or make a copy of it for their own personal use in the UK.

At the moment it is still illegal to make any copies in the UK. Technically, anyone who actually buys a CD and then decides to put it on a media playing device of some kind, so as not to have to carry around a bunch of CDs, is committing a crime. This will change come June.

It will still be of course illegal to make copies for your friends or for your family or for sharing on the web, so don’t do that. But you can make a backup or rip it for your own personal needs.

This seems like an obvious step and I’m sure most people are already doing it, but some times these things take time, so it’s good to see the UK moving in the right direction, even if it’s only slightly so.

[via Ars Technica, Wired]