Copyright laws must focus on consumer rights

UK copyright law looks set for a shake-up following a major report that says the current system is out of touch with the digital age.

The long-awaited Hargreaves Review, commissioned by the Government last November, lays out several recommendations that will impact the internet and wider world of technology.

Format shifting, a digital content exchange, and better representation for consumers all featured as key recommendations in a report that is designed to drag UK law into the 21st century, while still protecting the rights of intellectual property owners.

“We have found that the UK’s intellectual property framework, especially with regard to copyright, is falling behind what is needed,” Professor Ian Hargreaves said in the report, adding that too much protection had been given to copyright holders in some areas.

It is difficult for anyone to understand why it is legal to lend a friend a book, but not a digital music file

“Copying has become basic to numerous industrial processes, as well as to a burgeoning service economy based upon the internet,” he said. “The UK cannot afford to let a legal framework designed around artists impede vigorous participation in these emerging business sectors.”

Hargreaves said current legislation was impeding innovation, by preventing companies from developing new technologies and services.

Format-shifting fix

Among the proposed changes were recommendations to change the copyright laws to allow format shifting, which currently makes it technically illegal to burn CDs to a hard drive, for example.

“Digital technology has enabled use and reuse of material by private individuals in ways that they do not feel are wrong – such as sharing music tracks with immediate family members, or transferring a track from a CD to play in the car,” Hargreaves said.

“It is difficult for anyone to understand why it is legal to lend a friend a book, but not a digital music file. This puts the law into confusion and disrepute. It is not a tenable state of affairs.”

The comment was just one that suggested the Government needed to stop bowing to rights-holder lobbyists and start to take more notice of the consumer.

“Government’s IP policy decisions need to be more closely based on economic evidence and should pay more attention to the impact on non-rights holders and consumers,” the report said, alluding to suggestions that the music industry and other have inflated the cost of copyright breaches such as P2P file-sharing.

As part of the proposals, Hargreaves recommended setting up a system to make it easier for copyright owners and potential resellers to negotiate rights. “The UK should have a 'Digital Copyright Exchange' - a digital marketplace where licences in copyright content can be readily bought and sold, a sort of online copyright shop,” the report said.

Copyright licensing is the wiring behind the scenes that consumers don’t see

Hargreaves appears to have pulled off something of a coup by putting together a review that initially appeals to both sides of the copyright debate, but rights campaigners cautioned that the recommendations would needed to be implemented into law if they were to be useful.

“Hargreaves’ recommendations to sort out costly and slow copyright procedures would directly benefit consumers, business and copyright holders - copyright licensing is the wiring behind the scenes that consumers don’t see,” said Mike O’Connor, chief executive at Consumer Focus.

“However, without it consumers won’t have access to innovative online music, film and eBook services that effectively harness digital technology," O’Connor added. "The key now is for the recommendations to be implemented, unlike the Gowers Review four years ago. Business and consumers will miss out unless we take this opportunity to reform copyright law for the digital age.”

"Fair use" disappointment"

Rights campaigners were disappointed that there was no fair-use system, which in the US, for example, allows certain exemption from prosecution for research and education purposes.

However, the fair-use exclusion was welcomed by the creative industries, which said it would enable to artists to continue to protect their work.

“We are delighted that Professor Hargreaves has listened to the creative sector and has rejected moves to change the fundamental principles behind UK copyright law which would have damaged investment in the UK’s creative industries,” said Christine Payne, chair of the Creative Coalition Campaign

“The decision to omit the US style fair-use system is recognition that the UK already has a flexible copyright framework that facilitates fair dealing.”

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