David Lammy, Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, has launched a wide-ranging consultation by the Intellectual Property Office on the future direction of copyright. The aim is to ensure that the copyright system properly supports creativity, promotes investment and jobs while also inspiring the confidence of businesses and of users (as being fair and reasonable). In building a long term vision and supporting our creative industries, we need to think beyond our national borders and consider the global future of copyright.Source: Intellectual Property Office If you have comments and - much better - evidence for ORG's submission then please use this commentable post, which features the full text and all the questions from the consultation document, to feed into our collaborative drafting process.An ‘Issues Paper PDF document(485Kb)’ has been published to help start this debate. This framework document identifies key areas for discussion, which include:
* Access to works: ensuring that the current system is not overly complex, particularly in relation to the licensing of rights, rights clearance and copyright exceptions and that the legal enforcement framework is fit for the digital age; * Incentivising investment and creativity: ensuring the current copyright system provides the right incentives to sustain investment and support creativity and that those who gain value from content are paying for it; * Recognising creative input: achieving the right balance between commercial certainty and the rights of creators and creative artist; and * Authenticating works: addressing issues related to authentication and seeing whether there is a case for differentiation between the rights of creative artists and other rights holders.
A series of meetings and events are also being arranged to enable interested parties to debate the key issues and possible solutions.
This initial period of consultation will run until February 2009. The intention is to conclude this work in Summer 2009.
We would welcome your comments - If you would like to post your comments or gain further information, please e-mail copyrightfuture@ipo.gov.uk
