Hard Drive Hits Bum Note

Drivers who buy cars with 'hard drive' music storage systems have been warned they must delete all songs when they later sell the vehicle. If they don't, they risk prosecution for breaking copyright law.

The alert has come from UK music industry body the British Phonographic Institute (BPI). Its spokesman said: "Owners should remove copied music from the hard drive before selling their car, just as they would with a second-hand MP3 player or computer with music on. If the tunes are still loaded, you are distributing it, which is in breach of copyright."

The Mitsubishi Outlander was one of the first cars in the UK to feature a hard drive. A company spokesman said: "Our understanding is that the owner of the vehicle is responsible for erasing all of the downloaded music from the system before selling it." He confirmed that dealers know to wipe the memory if offering a used Outlander, but have no control over what happens to privately sold vehicles.

Yet Mitsubishi isn't the only maker to have identified potential problems. VolksWagen is wrestling with the legal issues of hard drives, too. The Tiguan compact SUV, which goes on sale in February, is the firm's first car to have one. A spokesman told us it planned to include a warning in the manual, clarifying that the owner is responsible for all copyright issues, and that VW can't be held liable.

So, do car makers have a responsibility to warn customers of the risks? According to the BPI spokesman, yes. "Whether there is a legal responsibility I'm not sure, but they certainly have a social one to ensure their customers don't break the law," he said.

For car insurance at the right price why not Gocompare it with Gocompare.com?