Microsoft unveils Windows 10 system

30 September 2014 Last updated at 19:56 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

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BBC's Richard Taylor: "Windows 10 features the all-important Start button which people know and like very much"

Microsoft has disclosed the first details of Windows 10 - its next operating system (OS).

The name is a surprise, bearing in mind it represents a jump from the last version - Windows 8.

The software will run on a wide range of devices, from phones and tablets to PCs and Xbox games consoles, with applications sold from a single store.

It also marks the return of the Start Menu, which had been removed from Windows 8.

In addition to offering a list of the user's favourite applications, the menu also brings up resizable tiles - similar to those featured in Windows 8's touch-centric interface on PCs and tablets.

These provide a quick view of notifications from relevant applications, such as details of new emails, Facebook messages and weather forecast updates.

The company said the facility was intended to make the software seem familiar to both users of Windows 8 and Windows 7.

The behaviour of the OS will depend on the type of device with which it is being used. Unlike its predecessor, users will not need to switch between Desktop Mode and the touch-focused alternative.

However, they can still spread a number of "live tiles" across the screens of two-in-one laptop-tablet hybrids to make them easier to use with both a mouse and finger presses.

'Critical' choice

Windows 8 had been criticised for being too different to the previous version, which deterred some organisations from introducing it.

It initially lacked a Start button altogether, and when one was introduced, it only switched to the touch-centric tiled interface or - if a long mouse press was used - provided access to the system's control panel and other functions.

Businesses typically wait about a year after a new operating system's release before offering it to workers, to give IT staff a chance to get to grips with the new technologies involved.

But it has been nearly two years since Windows 8 first went on sale and adoption is still low.

"It's extremely important for Microsoft to get Windows 10 right," said David Johnson, who watches Microsoft for the consultancy Forrester.

"Windows 8 is only being offered to employees by about one in five organisations right now. Windows 7 is still the de facto standard for enterprise in the desktop environment.

"For Microsoft to continue to be able to get the best and latest technology in the hands of the enterprise workforce all over the world, it has to have a vehicle to do that - and Windows 10 is its best shot."

Across desktop PCs as a whole, only 13.4% currently run Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, according to research firm NetMarketshare.

By contrast, it says 51.2% are powered by Windows 7 and 23.9% by Windows XP, a version that is no longer supported by Microsoft.

Mr Johnson said the reintroduction of the Start Menu should help Windows 10 fare better.

"It is critically important," he said.

"The Start Menu is perhaps the most important thing that will make the desktop experience familiar to business users, and will help reduce resistance to its installation."

Preview download

Other features include:

• Snap enhancements - a new "quadrant layout" will allow four apps to be easily arranged on the same screen
• Task view - a new button on the task bar will let the user see all open apps and files, helping them switch from one to another
• Multiple desktops - users can switch between distinct desktop screens, allowing them to group related work together rather than having to deal with a single screen overloaded with documents and apps. This is similar to a feature already available on Apple's Mac OS

Microsoft will offer a "technical preview" of Windows 10 to early adopters later this week, which will run on laptops and desktops. A release that will work on computer servers will follow.

Analysis: Richard Taylor, North America technology correspondent

Microsoft has a delicate balancing act as it attempts to cater to a diverse audience using a cornucopia of devices, from traditional keyboard/mouse-based PCs to tablets.

It got that balance wrong with Windows 8 - which many users felt was skewed towards the touchscreen at the expense of the familiar PC desktop experience that they had come to know intimately.

I asked Terry Myerson, the chief of operating systems at Microsoft, why the leadership had chosen the moniker Windows 10, rather than the more logical Windows 9.

He told me somewhat obliquely that it resonated best for what the company would deliver across the breadth of devices. Unifying a brand across all devices is key to Microsoft's vision.

But the Windows 10 name also symbolises that this will not be an incremental update, but something of a fresh start.

The user interface feels familiar yet modern. The "dual mode" - which aimed to satisfy tablet and PC users, but alienated both - has been replaced with a dynamically-adjusting interface and behaviour, determined by whether you are using a keyboard/mouse, or touch.

Ultimately Windows 10 success will depend on its execution. But at least under the new leadership, Microsoft is showing it is listening. It needs to if it is to stay relevant and stop the march of Android and Apple.

The company said it would provide details about the introduction of "universal apps" - individual programs that tailor their functionality to different types of devices - at its Build conference in April, and would aim to release the completed OS before the end of 2015.

There was no mention of offering the firm's voice-controlled digital assistant Cortana to PCs, or when Windows 10 would supersede the Windows Phone OS.

The firm's smartphone code is designed for ARM-based processors, unlike the main Windows 8 and Xbox operating systems that are built for x86 chips - including those made by Intel and AMD.

While Microsoft confirmed that Windows 10 would be released for both types of chip architecture, it did not disclose whether there would be a staggered release.

One analyst suggested that by using a single OS to power a wide range of devices, it might increase the amount of software available to all of them.

"The idea is, longer-term, to encourage developers to release more apps for Windows," said Annette Jump from the tech research firm Gartner.

"That's Microsoft's biggest challenge at the moment when it comes to tablets and phones - there are not as many apps as there are for iOS and Android."

Even so, another expert highlighted that the announcement in San Francisco had been deliberately tailored to appeal to business users.

"The event was clearly geared toward Microsoft's bread and butter enterprise customer, and we believe starting an early dialogue with these customers as well as learning from previous mistakes made in Redmond - eg Windows 8 - will be key to garnering major adoption of this all-important product cycle in the field," said Daniel Ives from research firm BlueMatrix.

"Overall, we believe today's event was another step in the right direction in the [Satya] Nadella era, and that Microsoft remains well positioned... while it undergoes a major restructuring effort to make it a 'leaner and meaner' technology giant over the coming years."

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Ex-MI6 head warns over tracking apps

1 October 2014 Last updated at 15:03

Parents should be aware that their children can be tracked online, the former head of MI6 has warned.

Sir John Scarlett said children and teenagers were more relaxed about the information they gave online than those even a little older.

He also said the public should be more worried about threats from terrorists and international criminal networks than the government snooping on them.

Sir John was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service for five years.

Speaking before he addressed the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) annual conference in Newport, south Wales, Sir John said the technological environment had changed rapidly.

"You've got to know what your children are doing. It's very difficult to know exactly what they're doing in particular when they're on a tablet or something they've got and you've got to have some kind of idea.

"They are extremely vulnerable, everybody is, to a whole range of things. Clearly when they're young children they're particularly vulnerable to predators."

Sir John went on: "Personally what worries me, in a way, most, is tracking devices.

"The way in which locational apps, for example, are now quite freely available, of course you can start off by consciously giving out that information, but once you've done that, you've lost control of it."

Shared information

There was a need for everyone to be aware that, once information was shared online, for example through using a search engine, it could be used by different firms, Sir John said.

Youngsters could also be tracked through getting into conversations online, or by using apps that used an individual's location.

"It's the tracking, and obviously if you get into conversations, I don't really see how that can be controlled unless you have some idea what your child's doing."

The "basic advice" was to teach children common sense values, such as being aware of the information they gave out and how they expressed themselves, Sir John said.

"If you're a young girl you're obviously vulnerable to tracking," he suggested.

There are individuals who are able to track someone "right down to more or less precisely where you are".

Sir John said that teenagers and younger children were "much more relaxed" about what they shared online because they had grown up with the technology, and it was a normal part of their lives.

Even a "tech-savvy" 30-year-old was less relaxed about what they shared.

'No protection'

He also argued that the public should be less worried about widespread government snooping.

"I think we're worrying in a way about the wrong thing.

"Potentially that capability for mass and uncontrolled snooping is clearly there. Technically it can be done."

The former spy chief warned that in general, there was "no absolute protection" against a determined online attack.

The public could protect themselves by using passwords and other measures against 80% of intrusions, he said, but "everybody has to understand that you can't be absolutely certain that somebody somewhere won't get it".

Sir John, who was chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service until 2009, said: "There are authoritarian states out there, there are terrorists out there, there's a massively growing organised criminal international network out there."

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Threat posed by voice activation

30 September 2014 Last updated at 13:35

Voice-activated smartphones and other devices can be a significant security risk, warn researchers.

An expert at security firm AVG found some voice-activated systems responded just as well to fake voices as they did to that of the owner.

Clever fraudsters could subvert this to send bogus messages or compromise gadgets in the future, said AVG.

Voice-activated systems needed to do a better job of checking who is talking, said a security expert.

Bogus message

Problems with voice-activated systems were found by Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at anti-virus firm AVG who managed to turn on and control a smart TV using a synthesised voice. The attack worked, he said, because the gadget did nothing to check who was speaking.

Voice-activated functions on Apple and Android smartphones were also vulnerable to the same attack, he found. In one demonstration, he used the synthesised voice to send a bogus message via an Android smartphone telling everyone in the device's contacts book that a company was going out of business.

Mr Ben-Itzhak also wondered if children could exploit the flaw and use it to turn off safety features that stop them seeing or using inappropriate content.

In the future, when homes and offices are peppered with more and more devices that are controlled via voice, attackers might well be tempted to abuse them, he warned.

"Utilising voice activation technology in the Internet of Things without authenticating the source of the voice is like leaving your computer without a password, everyone can use it and send commands," he wrote in a blog about the research.

Mr Ben-Itzhak said AVG undertook its research purely as a demonstration and there was no evidence of voice-based attacks being used.

Independent security expert Graham Cluley said there was no doubt that voice-activated systems could be more secure.

"It would obviously be preferable if devices were to learn our voices, and ask for some form of authentication if they determined that an unauthorised user might be giving commands," he told the BBC.

However, he wondered why attackers would use voice-based attacks rather than the more tried-and-tested techniques that currently work so well.

"If malware can get on an Android device to speak a command and order the Android to send an unauthorised email, it could just as easily do that without using speech," he said.

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Airlines told to replace cockpit kit

1 October 2014 Last updated at 14:49

Airlines have been ordered to replace or modify the cockpit display units fitted to hundreds of Boeing jets.

The US air safety regulator said that tests had indicated that mobile phone and computer signals could cause the screens to go blank.

The affected planes are typically fitted with several screens, each of which costs thousands of pounds.

Honeywell - the displays' manufacturer - has stressed that the problem has not been experienced in-flight.

"The only known occurrence was during a developmental test conducted on the ground," said spokesman Steve Brecken.

"We worked with Boeing and addressed any concerns in 2012 with new display hardware."

Boeing had previously issued an alert in November 2012 after an aeroplane operator and wi-fi vendor noticed interference caused by the installation of an in-flight internet system.

The "phase 3" display units were found to be susceptible to the same radio frequencies used to transmit data via wi-fi.

In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was concerned that the screens could be disrupted by mobile satellite communications, cellular signals from phones, and air surveillance and weather radar.

The watchdog noted that the displays were required to provide pilots with information about airspeed, altitude, heading and pitch and roll, and added that the fault could cause a crash.

"We are issuing this AD [airworthiness directive] to prevent loss of flight-critical information displayed to the flight crew during a critical phase of flight, such as an approach or take-off, which could result in loss of airplane control at an altitude insufficient for recovery, or controlled flight into terrain," it said.

Airline resistance

Planemaker Boeing said that it had recommended that carriers implement the changes back in 2012.

However, the FAA said that it had estimated that a total of 1,326 Boeing 737 and 777 jets still needed to make the change.

It estimated that the replacement programme would cost about $13.8m (£8.5m) to implement.

The agency noted that Virgin Australia, Air France, Ryanair and Honeywell were among those that had opposed the new rules on the grounds that they did not believe either current in-flight wi-fi systems or passengers' electronic devices emitted signals at a strong enough level to affect equipment on the flight deck.

The FAA said Ryanair had complained that the demands imposed "a high, and unnecessary, financial burden on operators".

Honeywell had suggested that airlines should be forced to install new screens only if wi-fi enabled tablets or other such equipment were used in the cockpit.

However, the FAA rejected these complaints saying it wanted to "eliminate" any risk of interference.

"We do not agree that no problems have occurred on in-service airplanes, since the wi-fi... testing that disclosed this susceptibility was conducted on an in-service airplane fitted with phase 3 display units," it added.

The Federal Aviation Administration has given the firms involved five years to swap or modify the components.

Experts said the public should not be alarmed.

"Passengers should not be worried at all," said Laurie Price, an independent aviation industry analyst.

"The fact the FAA has given airlines five years to do this suggests that the problem is of some concern, but it is not of significant concern."

Stephen Trimble from Flight International magazine added: "There's a lot of redundancies built into the planes' systems.

"It's extremely unlikely for this thing to happen. Southwest Airlines gave some data showing they have been running Boeing 737s with these display units for about 2,300,000 hours since installing a wi-fi system with no issues at all."

A spokesman for Ryanair told the BBC: "Ryanair will, as always, comply fully with this FAA directive, in conjunction with the IAA [Irish Aviation Authority], before its due date - 2019."

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Thousands flock to 'anti-Facebook'

30 September 2014 Last updated at 00:42 By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

Social media network Ello is currently receiving up to 31,000 requests an hour from people wishing to join its platform, its founder has told the BBC.

It was initially designed to just be used by about 90 friends of its founder Paul Budnitz.

But the bike shop owner, from the US state of Vermont, opened it to others on 7 August.

It has been dubbed the "anti-Facebook" network because of a pledge to carry no adverts or sell user data.

However some experts have cautioned that it might struggle with plans to charge micro-payments for certain "features".

The site has a minimalist design and does not appear as user-friendly, at first glance, as more established networks.

It has already survived a reported Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack - a targeted flood of internet traffic - which briefly knocked it offline over the weekend.

"We're learning as we go but we have a very strong tech crew and back end," founder Paul Budnitz told the BBC.

"It's in beta and it's buggy and it does weird stuff - and it's all being fixed as quickly as we can."

Mr Budnitz added that he was "flattered" by the "anti-Facebook" description, but said that was not the way he saw his service.

"We don't consider Facebook to be a competitor. We see it as an ad platform and we are a network," he explained.

The network will eventually make money by selling access to features, Mr Budnitz added.

"Like the app store, we're going to sell features for a few dollars," he said.

Members can already check out features in development on the page and register their interest.

Free likes

However, the traditional model of a free-to-use network has historically been the key to success, said James McQuivey, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester.

"Over all the other social media experiences from Whatsapp to Instagram to Pinterest - the reason they work is because they're free," he told the BBC.

"You don't invite your friend to connect with you if it costs your friend money. Even in the world of digital music - you can pay for services but most people don't."

"Ello is walking into a habit which consumers already have about digital services that they can't change on their own."

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Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee discusses the rise of Ello and privacy on social networks

Mr McQuivey also suggested that people's attitudes towards advertising and data mining might not be as negative as they seem.

"We may all think we don't like advertising, we may believe we think it's wrong for companies to profit from our personal data but our behaviour suggests these companies give us what we want and we don't mind what they do in return," he said."

"The fact is nobody has ever made a significant move away from any internet provider because of advertising or data."

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Cheryl Cole web links 'most dangerous'

X Factor judge Cheryl Cole has been named as the "most dangerous celebrity" online in the UK.

A security firm has been measuring the amount of malicious websites linked to a star's name.

Top tips to safe online

• Take note of content that prompts you to download anything
• Watch out for "free downloads" which could hide malware
• Keep your devices password protected
• Stick to sites you know
• Don't sign up for exclusive access if you're not sure about the site
• Get computer protection

Source: McAfee

According to McAfee, 15% of the search results related to Cheryl Fernandez-Versini contained links to online threats that could posed a risk.

The firm says hackers use celebrity names to hook online users adding words like "video" or "picture" to the end.

McAfee says searches such as "Cheryl Cole downloads" and "Cheryl Cole mp4s" were some of the riskiest when tested.

It's thought phishing attempts may have formed part of the hack that led to hundreds of naked celebrity photos being leaked online.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was second on the list, with Jessie J third.

All five members of One Direction featured in the top 20, with Harry Styles the highest ranked at number eight.

The Most Dangerous Celebrities study is now in its eighth year, and alongside the findings McAfee has published a list of steps for web users to follow in order to prevent themselves becoming victims of cybercrime.

The list includes warnings about free downloads, which McAfee says are "by far the highest virus-prone search term", as well as sticking to official websites only and not to give out personal information when asked to via email or text message.

The top 10 "most dangerous UK celebrities"

1. Cheryl Cole
2. Daniel Radcliffe
3. Jessie J
4. David Beckham
5. Alesha Dixon
6. Ellie Goulding
7. Pixie Lott
8. Harry Styles
9. Lily Allen
10. Rita Ora

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

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Thousands unable to renew car tax

1 October 2014 Last updated at 10:38

Thousands of customers have been unable to renew their car tax online, after the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website was swamped.

A new system comes into operation on Wednesday, after which it will no longer be necessary to display a paper tax disc in the windscreen.

But some motorists have spent up to 13 hours online, trying to get their car tax renewed.

The DVLA said the site had seen "an unprecedented volume of traffic".

Mike Dewsbury from Manchester was one of those who struggled to pay for his car tax - known officially as Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).

"It's a joke. I need to get to work but legally can't because my car isn't now taxed," he told the BBC.

The DVLA said that an extra 30,000 people had visited the site, compared to the same day last year.

It apologised for the disruption, and advised people who need to renew their tax urgently to do so at a Post Office instead.

'Double taxation'

Meanwhile the AA has complained that the new vehicle tax system will provide the government with extra revenue, as some cars will, in effect, be taxed twice.

Continue reading the main story

How much do you know about tax discs and other changes affecting your finances on 1 October? Test yourself with our quiz.

Under the new tax disc system, someone buying a car will no longer be able to benefit from any unused period on the disc.

But while buyers will need to renew the tax immediately, sellers are not allowed a refund for just part of a month.

So if a car is sold on say, the first day of the month, both buyer and seller will have paid the tax for that month.

"Someone driving a car that costs £500 a year to tax would lose £41 if they sold it at the beginning of the month," said Edmund King, the AA's president.

"Likewise a buyer purchasing a car mid month would have to pay Vehicle Excise Duty for the entire month," he added.

However the DVLA said it would not bring in much additional revenue.

It said it was always the case that car-sellers were only credited for each whole month that the disc was not used.

And it added that 65% of cars bought do not include tax passed on by the previous owner.

Number-plate recognition

The RAC has previously said the new system will result in tax evasion to the tune of £167m a year.

But the DVLA dismissed that claim as nonsense.

It said it expects to save £10m a year by not having to print and distribute paper tax discs.

Those who have not paid the tax will be spotted on number-plate recognition cameras, or their details will show up online.

Other changes coming into force on 1 October include a higher national minimum wage, and new rules on people who die intestate.

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Counterfeit Xbox One makers charged

1 October 2014 Last updated at 12:21

Four people have been charged in the US and one in Australia for their alleged involvement in a hacking ring that stole pre-release video game data.

Prosecutors have claimed that members of the group managed to use some of the information to create counterfeit versions of the Xbox One console.

One of these is said to have been sold on eBay for $5,000 (£3,085) ahead of the machine's official launch.

US Army helicopter training software is also alleged to have been pirated.

The US Department of Justice said that the value of the intellectual property and other data stolen totalled between $100m to $200m.

It added that two of the suspects - Sanadodeh Nesheiwat, from New Jersey, and David Pokora from Ontario, Canada - had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer fraud and copyright infringement.

They face up to five years in jail when a judge sentences them in January.

"Electronic breaking and entering of computer networks and the digital looting of identities and intellectual property have become much too common," said US government lawyer Charles Oberly.

"These are not harmless crimes, and those who commit them should not believe they are safely beyond our reach."

Unreleased games

Court documents state that the computer systems of Microsoft, Epic Games, Valve, Zombie Studio and the US Army were all breached as part of the attacks.

They suggest that this was achieved by a combination of adding code to web applications used by the firms, in what is known as SQL injection attacks, as well as obtaining stolen log-in credentials belonging to the companies' employees, and some of their software development partners.

It is alleged that the accused rented and used computers in the UK, US, Hong Kong, Australia and the Netherlands to commit the crimes in 2011.

Among the files said to have been stolen were:

• the technical specifications and source code for the Xbox One console
• Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 video game
• Epic Games's Gears of War 3 video game
• Square Enix's Thief video game
• Zombie Studios' AH-64D Apache Simulator, which had been created for the US Army

Investigators allege that Nathan Leroux - a 20-year-old from Maryland, subsequently ordered components from online retailers to build a counterfeit version of the Xbox One's development kit.

Court papers state that one copy was sold via eBay in August 2012, and the sale of a second unit was arranged to an individual based in Seychelles the same month,

This latter machine was, however, intercepted by the FBI before it left the US.

The development kit represented a PC loaded with a pre-release version of the Xbox operating system. Legitimate versions of this would have been used by trusted software houses at the time to create and test games for the console.

Microsoft did not formally unveil the Xbox One until May 2013, and it did not go on sale until November.

The papers also note that the Australian alleged to be part of the hacking ring appeared to have spoken about his exploits to the editor-in-chief of the Kotaku news site, who published an article about him last year.

Stephen Totilo reported that as well as having tried to help sell copies of the Xbox One kit, the Perth-based man - who used the nickname SuperDae - had also claimed to have played pre-release versions of Sleeping Dogs 2 and Homefront 2.

The man is reported to have added that he had searched for Half Life 3 on Valve's servers, but had not managed to find anything.

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Snoop Dogg's cash for Reddit users

1 October 2014 Last updated at 13:54 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Rapper Snoop Dogg, actor Jared Leto and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel are among the famous names investing in social news site Reddit.

The site said it raised $50m (£31m) in funding, and that it would take the unusual step of giving some of it to its users in the form of shares.

This could be done via a new crypto-currency like Bitcoin, the site has suggested.

The funding round values the company, which was set up in 2005, at $500m.

The new money will be used to improve the company's infrastructure, including adding more staff to its current workforce of 51.

The investment is being led by Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator, a major investor in mostly US start-up firms.

"We're working on a way to give 10% of our shares from this round to the Reddit community," he wrote in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on the site.

"I hope we can increase community ownership over time - I've always thought communities like Reddit should mostly own themselves, and that it's time for some innovation around corporate structure here."

The site said it has not yet decided how this share scheme would work - although Reddit's chief executive Yishan Wong suggested a specially-created crypto-currency could be an option.

In a posting on Reddit, Mr Wong said: "We are thinking about creating a crypto-currency and making it exchangeable (backed) by those shares of Reddit, and then distributing the currency to the community.

"The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms."

However, his post was prefaced with the words: "This plan could totally fail."

He added: "If it does, we will find another way to get the shares to the community somehow."

Fappening

Reddit bills itself as the "front page of the internet", a site on which people share web links which can then be either "up-voted" or "down-voted" by other users.

It means, in theory at least, that the best quality posts rise to the top of Reddit. Reaching the front page, reddit.com, means millions of clicks.

The same voting system applies to comments on the site too, meaning relatively low levels of spam and trolling when compared to other sites.

But Reddit is not without its problems. Aside from the frontpage, the site is made up of subreddits - smaller sections that can be set up by anybody.

This has led to controversial sections appearing in the past. In 2012, the site closed /r/creepshots, a subreddit sharing pictures of women taken in public but without their knowledge.

It followed the closure of another controversial area - /r/jailbait - which showed sexually suggestive images of underage girls. At first Reddit's Mr Wong said the section would not be shut, citing reasons of "free speech". But after a story by CNN's Anderson Cooper, the area was shut and remains so.

More recently, Reddit was at the centre of the celebrity nude photos leak. A special section, called The Fappening, had been set up - but later closed.

Richard Marsh, a partner at investment group DFJ Esprit, said Reddit needed to grow but should do so without upsetting its current community, who might resist more efforts to commercialise the site.

"They've raised a large amount of money from some large funds with good track records," he told the BBC.

"I think they're doing something novel. [The investors] have bought in to whatever plan they have - but it hasn't yet been shared with users. Whether it works is still to be seen.

"You'd only know by trying."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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UK legalises music and film ripping

1 October 2014 Last updated at 17:11 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

A law has come into effect that permits UK citizens to make copies of CDs, MP3s, DVDs, Blu-rays and e-books.

Consumers are allowed to keep the duplicates on local storage or in the cloud.

While it is legal to make back-ups for personal use, it remains an offence to share the data with friends or family.

Making such copies - including ripping CDs to iTunes - had previously qualified as copyright infringement, although cases were rarely prosecuted.

The changes were detailed in June, when the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) issued guidance, but had not come into effect until now.

"These changes are going to bring our IP [intellectual property] laws into the 21st century," said the minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe.

"They will mean that the UK IP regime will now be responsive to the modern business environment and more flexible for consumers."

The change to the law also allows the parody of copyright works. Previously, there has been a risk of being sued for breach of copyright if clips of films, TV shows or songs were used without consent.

DRM remains

There are limits to the change of rules.

For instance, while consumers can copy any CD they own and use one version in the car and another at home, they cannot later sell on the original disk if they retain the duplicates of it or MP3 conversions of its songs.

Users are not allowed to make recordings of streamed music or video from Spotify and Netflix, even if they subscribe to the services. Likewise, they cannot rip a rented Blu-ray, video game, e-book or other file.

And while it is legal to change a purchased TV download, movie file or e-book from one format to another, retailers including Amazon, Apple and Google are still allowed to include digital rights management software that makes this hard to achieve.

"The law does not say that things have to be un-DRM-ed," said Alice Enders, from the media consultancy Enders Analysis.

"If anything the pressure will increase - content owners will become more concerned about selling products to consumers that isn't 'wrapped.'

"They don't want their works to be copied without compensation. They want to either sell it, or rent it to you or get you on a subscription. No money comes from a copy."

She noted that unlike in most European countries, content creators were not being compensated by the UK for the extra rights.

Many EU nations place a levy on sales of recordable media - such as blank DVDs, memory cards and hard disks - and some also add a charge to MP3 players and video recorders, with the proceeds passed on to the media industry.

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