License to burn
Back in November the David Cameron announced the UK needed to overhaul its approach to the technology industry if it wants to be a centre of innovation. Among the changes he reckoned we needed was a change to our intellectual property laws to ensure they weren't stifling innovation. Inevitably he commissioned a report to look into it.
A mere seven months later, Professor Ian Hargreaves delivered a 130 page report of his ‘independent' review, which agreed with Cameron's views. You can download the full review here.
There's a wide range of proposals, which we've summarised below, but the key recommendation for consumers concerns ‘format shifting', in other words the copying of a piece of data - primarily music, but increasingly video too - onto other devices and formats in order to consume it where and when you want.
It seems even burning music from a CD is illegal, although we're not aware of anyone ever being prosecuted for doing so, and that's an illustration of just how unfit for purpose copyright law is. This also applies to some IP law, which it's feared is doing more to inhibit innovation than it is to protect rights-holders. Here's the operative passage from the executive summary of the report:
The UK has chosen not to exercise all of its rights under EU law to permit individuals to shift the format of a piece of music or video for personal use and to make use of copyright material in parody. Nor does the UK allow its great libraries to archive all digital copyright material, with the result that much of it is rotting away.
Taking advantage of these EU sanctioned exceptions will bring important cultural as well as economic benefits to the UK. Together, they will help to make copyright law better understood and more acceptable to the public. In addition, there should be a change in rules to enable scientific and other researchers to use modern text and data mining techniques, which copyright prohibits.
Here are the ten recommendations:
1. Emphasis on evidence in developing the IP system
2. Prioritise an EU patent system
3. The establishment of a Digital Copyright Exchange and facilitation of cross-border licensing
4. Enable licensing of orphan works
5. Limits to copyright where there is non-commercial use
6. Work to reduce ‘patent thickets' i.e. backlogs
7. More support for the design industry
8. Enforcement of IP rights
9. More support for smaller firms
10. A more responsive IP system
Interested parties were quick to respond. Ben Drury, CEO of digital media company 7digital, said: "7digital welcomes the conclusions of the Hargreaves report and the liberalising of UK copyright law. In particular, we welcome the recognition that ‘format shifting' should be legal and bringing UK copyright law in line with the rest of Europe will open up the market and promote innovation.
"Having outdated laws is a hindrance to companies that aim to develop new products and services for consumers of digital music and content, which in turn slows the adoption of digital and damages the music and content industries as a whole.
"The creation of the Digital Copyright Exchange and the requirement on collecting societies to legally adopt codes of practice are also welcome. 7digital believes that in the digital age removing barriers to licensing and increased transparency is critical to ensuring the UK can remain at the forefront of digital content creation."
Katja Hall, chief policy director at the CBI, said: "Businesses accept the need to bring the law on format shifting into line with common consumer practice, to allow those who've paid for copyrighted material to use it in a variety of ways.
"However, the report suggests a range of further copyright exceptions which need to be carefully considered before being adopted as Government policy. Once undone, they could be very difficult to piece back together.
"The report raises important issues around so-called patent thickets. While we accept that these can present barriers to innovation and growth, the Government must be careful to avoid action that will penalise genuine patent clusters and the risk of undermining investment in these important industries."
It will be interesting to see how the music industry responds to this. The likes of Amazon and Google seem to have been frustrated in their efforts to get them to collaborate in their cloud music services, which allow consumers to save their music on remote servers and thus access it from a variety of devices. Developments such as the Hargreaves report will make it increasingly difficult for them to maintain such an entrenched stance.
