The government is updating its archaic copyright laws by making it officially legal for people to copy content from CDs and DVDs owned by them on their MP3 players and computer systems.

This practice is being followed by people for a long time now but not many knew that they were breaking the law by copying CD/DVD content on to other media devices.

The amendments to the age old law comes after the government commissioned the Hargreaves Report, which advised the government to change existing laws and make new ones to accommodate the digital age.

Interestingly, the report also suggested the government to change laws so that parodies or comedy covers of copyrighted media are deemed legal.

“We are determined to explore how exceptions to copyright can benefit the UK economy and support growth. Private copying is carried out by millions of people, and many are astonished that it is illegal in this country,” UK business secretary Vince Cable said.

He also informed that the government has canned one section of the act that allowed the government to force ISPs to block websites that host copyrighted material illegally. But, he added that the government is looking into other options to facilitate this.

The full response to the Hargreaves report is available here.