Freelance UK - News Sponsorship
	Freelance UK Money Club  Mortgages - Income Protection - Retirement Planning - Life Cover  No consultation fees, no pressure, just free, impartial advice from  specialist IFA FreelancerMoney.

UK copyright law 'unfit' for society

Copyright laws governing the UK’s creative industries are outdated and should be radically overhauled to fit in with today’s modern and digital society.

The declaration from the National Consumer Council has been targeted at the former editor of The Financial Times, Andrew Gowers, who is reviewing the UK’s intellectual property framework.

He has been told by the Council that although other areas of IP do remain important to consumers, the copyright regime is causing “particular difficulties.”

“The copyright regime, which was designed for the analogue world, has proved unfit for the challenges of the digital revolution,” the Council said in its submission.

“Digital technology has radically changed distribution models in many sectors, and led to major tensions between IP rights holder – particularly music companies – and consumers,” it added.

Supporting its claims, the Council commissioned YouGov to probe the attitudes of over 2,000 Britons, aged 18 or over, on today’s copyright regime.

Ominously for music companies, almost 60 per cent of respondents said it was “perfectly legal” to copy the contents of music CDs onto other systems, such as a computer or an MP3 player.

Although just over 20 per cent admitted they didn’t know if copying CDs was illegal for personal use in their own homes, the lowest number of respondents – just 18 per cent- knew it was against the law.

“The law is out of step with modern life and discriminates unfairly against consumers [by] putting unrealistic limits on their private listening and viewing habits,” NCC said in a statement.

On behalf of consumers,Jill Johnstone, author of the Council’s submission, believes any future development of IP law should be based on an impartial assessment of the “costs and benefits to society as a whole.”

“‘We need to shake up the copyright law to incorporate consumers’ ‘fair use’ rights - including the right to copy for private use,” she said.

The appeal to the Review team includes a challenge to the long periods of copyright protection currently afforded to IP holders.

“Whether for films, literary or musical works, sound recordings or broadcasts, the length of all copyright terms should be reduced to fit more closely the time period over which most financial returns are normally made,” Ms Johnstone said.

“The current campaign by the music industry to extend copyright terms for sound recordings beyond 50 years has no justification. Evidence shows that music companies generally make returns on material in a matter of years not decades. Current terms already provide excessive protection of intellectual property rights at a cost to consumers.”

Among the solutions tabled, the Council recommends consumer rights should be incorporated into copyright legislation, primarily by amending the UK law, so it clearly give the right to copy for private use.

Supporting action should include influencing the EU copyright review to provide clear consumer rights in European law.

Concluding its recommendations for how copyright law can become ‘fit’ for society, the Council says criminal sanctions for copyright infringement should be given only to organised criminals.

May 12, 2006
Email this article
Printer friendly page

Previous Page