Digital Age Brings With It Copyright Implications

Edmund Probert, partner and intellectual property specialist, welcomes the proposed reforms to copyright licensing, saying they should benefit the region's creative companies.

"Ten years have got behind you ... you missed the starting gun!" Pink Floyd were not thinking about the Government when they wrote these lines but, on their behalf, Professor Ian Hargreaves has been thinking about them. The Professor has now published his report on copyright almost exactly ten years after the first iPod arrived in the UK and brought the format shifting problem to everyone's attention. 

So what has he concluded? On this issue, once you have a licence for copyright material in one form, say CD, you should be able to copy it to other formats at will, provided that each copy is for your own personal use. Many people believe this is already the law, but it will be at least 12 to 18 months before it is. You will also be able to parody works without infringing copyright. Professor Hargreaves noted that this was becoming more and more popular, particularly with the YouTube generation – and thought it was culturally valuable.

Professor Hargreaves also looked at a number of other areas. Those of immediate interest are the suggestion that the UK should have a Digital Copyright Exchange to facilitate licensing of copyright works. The idea is that there should be a central register of works that are available for licencing with prices and terms openly available. This would then allow much speedier use of copyright material and help industry.

At present it can be difficult to find out who owns the right you want to licence and even when you do you will need to negotiate the terms. Often the rights holder has no experience of licensing and the commercial relationship that could benefit both parties never forms. There are EU pressures for this type of exchange and it is thought we should work with this.

Similarly the Professor thinks that the Government should licence 'orphaned rights' – ie those with no obvious owners – so as to protect the licensee against a claim later. The money would either be used for suitable purposes or, if the owner turned up, be paid over. This is another useful solution. Many works are simply not being used because of the unknown risk of infringement proceedings. The effectiveness of these reforms will heavily depend on the licensing arrangements, in particular the cost of the obtaining a licence. To be effective, the licence terms must be accessible for those wishing to utilise the works, whilst protecting the rights owners. 

Finally it is suggested that the Intellectual Property Office should have powers to issue formal opinions on the application of copyright law. At present the only option is to go to court, as did Pink Floyd this year arguing that the licence they had given EMI did not allow sales of tracks but only the full albums. 

The South West has a number of creative companies that could potentially benefit from these reforms. It is not uncommon for us to see creative ideas shelved due to copyright clearance issues. 

These reforms are to be welcomed and thankfully the Government agrees. We will now need to wait for some parliamentary time, hopefully before the next big technological advance that changes the game again.

Edmund can be contacted on 01392 685325 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for further information or advice.