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The Music Business Group (MBG), which numbers record company trade groups and rights collecting organisations among its members, backs proposals for change in UK copyright law that would provide legal backing for private copying of music to computers and portable players, so-called format shifting.

But it believes that rights holders should be compensated by a voluntary licensing scheme.

"The proposal we have put forward through the Music Business Group would see format-shifting copying (i.e. "CDs to iPods") brought within the law," MBG spokesman Richard Mollet explained in an

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email.

"At the same time we propose that music rightsholders set up a licensing scheme, with government approval, by which manufacturers and importers of 'enabling devices' (e.g. MP3 players, iPods, phones) would pay rightsholders to share the value that they realise from consumers format-shifting."

He said this is not a levy in the European sense as it would not be statutory, begging the question of how the MBG plans to persuade device makers to agree to paying its licence.

"Clearly there would have to be a process of negotiation and development, but I think there are a number of factors pointing in our direction," he said. Some device manufacturers, notably Nokia, have started to seek licensing deals, while others may be persuaded by the prospect of "other potential business models and opportunities for partnership".

He stressed that such deals would "legitimise" format shifting - and nothing else.

"It is restricted to 'offline' copying, which is to say that it doesn't apply to internet downloading or file-sharing, illegal or otherwise," he said.

Asked for its thoughts on paying such a licence for its iPods, Apple declined to comment.