Germany bans all music and video copying, including personal use — UPDATED

AV sez, "Germany's parliament on Friday approved a copyright law, which makes it all but illegal for individuals to make save and make copies of television, films and music, even for their own use. It goes into effect in 2008."

Nice going, Germany — between this and the new anti-hacker laws, you've managed to criminalize every productive member of the information society. Enjoy the caves and flint axes.

Germany's upper house of parliament on Friday approved a controversial copyright law, which makes it all but illegal for individuals to make copies of films and music, even for their own use.

The Bundesrat pushed aside criticism from consumer protection groups and passed the law, which makes it illegal for anyone to store DVDs and CDs without permission. The law also covers digital copies from IPTV and TV broadcasts.

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(Thanks, AV!)

Update: Variety's reporting of this story seems to have gotten the story wrong. Check out the comments for this post, especially Sonja's, for more.