Thank you for all your comments and the interest that our survey has generated. We have read through the comments that have been posted and hope that the points below address the main issues raised by those who have taken the time to add comments to our blog.
Archive for the 'Hargreaves Review' Category
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has held its final evidence session on the Hargreaves Review on the 15 November with Baroness Wilcox, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The evidence session outlining the benefit of a practical presentation on how the Digital Copyright Exchange is to work is available at the bottom of this helpful summary by Coadec. As this was a short inquiry, the BIS Com will publish a short report.
The final consultation on implementing the Hargreaves Review is most likely to be published in mid-December, which is very much welcomed by the SCA. The consultation will have a three months response time, with a deadline expected to be in mid March. It is expected that this will ask for more evidence and suggestions on how to implement the new exceptions into law.
More recently, the IPO and the Ministry of Justice have announced the implementation of a small claims track to the Patents County Court (soon to be renamed the IP County Court). This recommendation was first made by the Jackson Review, and re-affirmed by Hargreaves. It is excepted that following a final consultation on the details the small claims track will be implemented early next year. The background is that IP disputes currently can only be dealt with through “multi-track”, according to the Civil Procedure Rules. Multi-track is most appropriate for commercial disputes with a value of over 25k. The small claims track will be designed to deal with IP disputes of a value up to k5. The idea is that it will provide small and medium sized businesses, as well as individual copyright owners, such as photographers, with better and affordable access to justice. See http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/hargreaves.htm
And, last but not least, the IPO has announced the appointment of Richard Hooper to lead Digital Copyright Exchange feasibility study. The Digital Copyright Exchange being one of the more high profile recommendations of Hargreaves. This study will be undertaken over the coming 6 months, Richard Hooper saying:
“I want to talk to people across and outside the sector to find out how they see the licensing challenges facing them. As part of that process, I’ll be looking to meet the key players and to provide opportunities for all those interested to air their views. We will then be able to forge some common understanding so that I can look to produce appropriate industry-led solutions which respond to the spirit of Hargreaves’ vision.”
For more info see http://www.ipo.gov.uk/about/press/press-release/press-release-2011/press-release-20111122.htm
This is your opportunity to make your voice heard at Westminster and Brussels. In 2009 the Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) and the Collections Trust (CT) published one of the few empirical pieces of evidence – In From the Cold – on the scale and impact of orphan works (works for which the rights holders are unknown or cannot be traced) on galleries, libraries, archives and libraries specifically and other organisations more broadly. Orphan works represent a significant barrier to education, research and innovation. Their management requires disproportionate amounts of public funds at a time of austerity, and the significant difficulties of tracing rights holders results in a potential black hole of 20th and 21st century digital content.
We need your help in building the evidence base to support you to deliver digital content more efficiently and effectively, so we are asking you to complete this short survey: http://1686881.polldaddy.com/s/orphan-works-survey.
We know what a chore survey completion can be, but we think it is important to provide policymakers with empirical evidence on which to base decisions rather than lobbynomics. The survey will only take a few minutes and as a thank you we will enter your name to the prize draw – giving you a chance to win a new Kindle! The closing date for the survey is Friday 16 December 2011, names will be entered into a prize draw and winners will be notified by email. We will publish the results of the survey in January 2012.
Some background:
In 2011, the SCA and CT have been joined by LIBER, Museums Galleries Scotland, Scottish Library and Information Council, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and SCONUL in an attempt to gauge the changes, through this online survey, that have occurred since the original report was published. The results will be shared with UK IPO, HMG, EC and European Parliament. In the recent Independent Review of IP and Growth, Professor Ian Hargreaves stated that the government “…should begin by legislating to release for use the vast treasure trove of copyright works which are effectively unavailable – “orphan works” – to which access is in practice barred because the copyright holder cannot be traced. This is a move with no economic downside”. Many other countries already have solutions for orphan works. The European Union is also proposing a Directive on Orphan Works.
The Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) is delighted that the Government has decided to endorse all the recommendations made by Professor Ian Hargreaves outlined within his independent review of Intellectual Property (IP) and Growth.
Stuart Dempster (Director, SCA) gives some personal thoughts on what this will mean for public bodies, business and the public