[x-pubpol] UK Announces Updates To Copyright Licensing

[Joly MacFie]

http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/07/02/uk-announces-updates-to-copyright-licensing/

The United Kingdom government will publish draft updates to the UK
copyright licensing system later this week, keeping strong criminal
penalties, it said today.

The new legislative measures will be included in the Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform bill to be published later in the week. According to the
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (which the IP office is in),
they would:

“• allow the creation of a future ‘orphan works’ scheme to open access to
valuable material that currently can’t be licensed or used
• put in place a voluntary regime for extending collective licensing to
help reduce complexities in the system
• reserve a power to introduce statutory codes of conduct for collecting
societies if they fail to operate to minimum standards.”

“The measures we plan to introduce as soon as possible would make it easier
for those seeking access to, and use of, copyrighted works,” Business
Minister Norman Lamb said in a release. “Freeing up so-called ‘orphan
works’ will allow use of works for the first time, making the most of
untapped economic and creative potential. Extending licensing arrangements
for collective societies, whilst ensuring rights holders are protected,
will also help maximise the benefit for the UK’s world-class creative
industries.”

The government said it also will introduce “a power to implement a recent
EU Directive on the term of protection for sound recordings in a way that
keeps the UK’s current strong criminal penalties for copyright
infringement.”

The draft clauses to be published this week will be examined by Parliament
as part of the bill. The changes are intended to be a response to
recommendation from the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property, which
was published in August 2011.

A policy statement by the government is here: Consultation on modernising
copyright <http://www.ipo.gov.uk/response-2011-copyright.pdf> [pdf]

Last week, the UK Parliament committee urged government to speed up IP
reforms (*IPW*, European Policy, 27 June
2012<http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/27/uk-parliament-panel-urges-government-to-speed-ip-reforms/>
).
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