Consultation on Copyright

The Government has launched a consultation on proposals to change the UK’s copyright laws following on from recommendations made in the Hargreaves Review earlier this year. The full text of the consultation paper is available athttp://www.ipo.gov.uk/consult-2011-copyright.pdf.

The key proposals are as follows:

Orphan Works

The introduction of a central registry scheme for so-called orphan works (copyright works and performances whose authors cannot be traced after a diligent search) enabling the use of such works for a fee. Currently such works cannot be used legally (unless the use falls within a list of limited permitted exceptions) because there is no owner available to grant permission. The Government only intends to introduce such a scheme if sufficient safeguards can be put in place to protect the owners of orphan works. These include making due provision for rights holders to be paid and introducing codes of conduct for collecting societies. The Government is consulting on issues such as whether use should be authorised by the registry where there is doubt about whether a work is in copyright and whether authorisation should be given for the use of orphan works outside the UK. This change could in theory make a whole new range of material accessible for producers: the BBC Archives hold a large number of orphan works and 31% of books in the British Library are estimated to be orphan works. The move could also help to fund the digitisation and preservation of these works if archives and museums are able to charge for their use.

Extended Collective Licensing

To develop a voluntary extended collective licensing scheme in the UK, whereby collecting societies can apply to the Government for authorisation to operate an extended licensing scheme in relation to particular rights and uses of rights in their sector within the UK. To become authorised, a collecting society would need to demonstrate that it is representative of the rights holders in its sector (i.e. it acts for the majority of those rights holders) and would need to obtain the consent of the majority of their members to apply for authorisation. The authorised collecting society would then collect on behalf of all rights holders in that sector (including those rights holders who are not members of the collecting society but excluding those who have opted out of the scheme).

Codes of Conduct for Collecting Societies

To publish minimum standards dealing with fairness, good governance and transparency. The initial aim is for industry to self-regulate by adopting these standards as a voluntary code of conduct. The code would deal with matters such as obligations to rights holders and licensees, reporting requirements and complaints handling. However, the Government also proposes to legislate to create a backstop power for itself to impose a statutory code of conduct with penalties for non-compliance on those collecting societies who do not self regulate satisfactorily.

Copyright Exceptions

To broaden existing copyright exceptions in order to bring them up to date and to extend them as far as permissible within EU law and without undermining incentives to creators. The proposals include permitting limited private copying for non-commercial use on any device or medium and bringing in a new exception permitting copyright works to be used for parody, caricature and pastiche subject to "fair dealing" requirements.

Copyright Notice Service

To give the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) a statutory function to publish formal opinions on UK copyright law and its application in order to clarify copyright law where it is causing confusion or misunderstanding.

Interested parties can submit their views and any relevant evidence by 21 March 2012 using the consultation response form in Annex D of the consultation paper (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/consult-2011-copyright.pdf). The Government intends to respond to the consultation and make formal proposals for legislation in Spring 2012.

This note is intended to be a brief summary of the relevant points, for further information please contact Kate Conway Davies (kconwaydavies@sheridans.co.uk) or Peter McInerney (pmcinerney@sheridans.co.uk) at Sheridans.