Thursday 27 February 2014

IPO contribution to EU Copyright Consultation


The UK Government, in the form of the IPO, has published their contribution to the EU Copyright Consultation here.  You still have time to change your own submission in response before 5 March.

As Eleonora reviews on the IPKat in beautiful detail the key aspects of this response, it seems unnecessary to do the same, so this blogger will confine himself to a couple of comments:


  • It is blessedly short - bearing in mind the length of the consultation itself, the IPO is to be commended at creating a response that is only 10 pages long (although no doubt the Commission will be disappointed that the UK chose to ignore their convoluted structured approach to the questionnaire.
  • Within those 10 pages, a surprisingly few are devoted to what industry might see as the more significant issues - for example, cross-border portability merits only two paragraphs (including a cross reference to an earlier government response on another consultation), while exceptions around teaching merit nearly a page.
  • The most surprising position is that, in relation to digital resale, the UK position is "There seems to be no reason why [resale and a secondary market] should not be the case for digital copies, except for the “forward and delete” issue noted by the consultation."  The UK government wants to make sure that this is introduced in a way that allows it to be priced into the original sale/licence, but seems to accept the principle of digital resale. 





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