UK copyright laws to be reviewed

I came across this interesting news about development of UK copyright law on BBC, announced by the Prime Minister David Cameron that Britain's intellectual property laws are to be reviewed to "make them fit for the internet age".

He said that law could be relaxed to allow greater use of copyright material without the owner's permission. The announcement was welcomed by internet campaigners who say it will boost small business. But any changes could be resisted by the music and film industries who have campaigned against copyright reform.

This could conceivably affect the controversial Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA), which seeks to clamp down on unlawful ("illegal") internet P2P File Sharing of software and media (music, films etc.) by broadband ISP customers.

The PM, David Cameron, said:

“The founders of Goofle have said they could never have started their company in Britain. The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the USA.

Over there, they have what are called ‘fair-use’ provisions, which some people believe gives companies more breathing space to create new products and services. So I can announce today that we are reviewing our IP laws, to see if we can make them fit for the internet age.”

He further added: "The Publishers Association will work very closely with the Intellectual Property Office during this six month review to ensure that rights holder' interests are not regarded as an obstacle to creating internet based business models, as some believe, but rather as the foundation of the UK's world-beating creative, cultural and educational publishing industries."

While, The Open Rights Group (ORG), an often outspoken critic of the country's harsh internet copyrights laws and their perceived threat to free speech, has been quick to welcome the news.The Executive Director of the Open Right Group, Jim Killock stated that, The Digital Economy Act left a massive hole of missing user rights like personal copying and parody. It’s great to have the opportunity to make the case for modern copyright that works for citizens and artists rather than yesterday’s global publishing monopolies.

However we must caution against too much optimism and would be extremely surprised if such a review actually affected the DEA in any meaningful way. To date the government has shown no sign of being able to recognise any of the fundamental problems with this act, such as how it risks targeting innocent users.

=yinyen gan=