INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual Property Law

Introduction

Jim Killock, Executive Director of Digital Rights campaigners the Open Rights Group, said: “Rigid copyright stifles innovation and hurts citizens. It's no coincidence that Google set up in America, where 'Fair Use' rights make copyright more flexible. The UK government needs to grapple with this now, so that new UK industries can spring up and consumers can benefit.

“It is ridiculous to ban copying, sampling and parody without payment, yet that is how the law stands today. The government is undermining copyright's reputation by failing to give clear rights to users in a changed digital world, where we all rip, mix and burn. Copyright urgently needs reform, as this study shows.”

A 'Fair Use' exception to the law would protect copyright holders' exclusive rights, while providing exceptions to copying activities that cause no, or minimal economic harm to the rights holders. This would cover instances where consumers copy to: back up files; to view at a more convenient time (time shifting); to play on a different device (format shifting); or simply to share with family and friends.

Consumer Focus does not condone the sharing of content in violation of copyright, but considers the rise of this activity as an inevitable consequence of the formal digital market failing to meet consumer demands and needs. A 'Fair Use' exception would not allow widespread distribution of copyrighted material, even if for non-commercial reasons.

It would also cover 'user generated content' where material is reworked for new, 'non-commercial' purposes. Such content has an increasingly high social value - not least to the “You Tube generation”, which has discovered 'mash-ups' as a new, significant form of expression.

Discussion

UK copyright laws are the worst in the world and needlessly criminalise millions of people, according to a new report.

Consumer Focus said countries around the world had adapted their copyright laws to keep up with advances in technology, but the UK had been left behind.

A "fair use" exception to copyright law was needed to allow copying activities that cause no economic harm to rights holders, the group said. A survey of 16 countries by Consumers International, a global umbrella group for consumer rights organizations, rated the UK's intellectual property laws as worse than emerging economies such as Thailand and Argentina.

The study looked at how each country's copyright law balanced the interests of rights holders with those of consumers.

Ed Mayo, the chief executive of Consumer Focus, said: "UK copyright law is the oldest but also the most out of date. It's time our copyright law caught up with the real world. "The current system puts unrealistic limits on our listening and viewing habits and is rapidly losing credibility among consumers. A broad 'Fair Use' exception would bring us in line with consumer expectations, technology and the rest of the world." (Varian, 2004, 125)

Intellectual property is neither a new nor a static concept. The grant by a state of some form of exclusive rights in their inventions to inventors originated in the early part of the 15th century in Venice ...