Green light for Hargreaves

Business Secretary, Vince Cable has accepted all 10 recommendations made by Professor Hargreaves in his independent review in May.

This means it will be lawful for individuals who have bought CDs and DVDs to copy their contents onto a computer or iPod, and lawful for performing artists to parody someone else’s work without first seeking copyright permission.

New licensing procedures will be introduced to release “orphan” works whose copyright owners are unknown. The law on search and analysis techniques known as “text and data mining” will be relaxed to give researchers greater access to data.

The government will announce further details of the digital copyright exchange—a digital market place where copyright licences can be readily bought and sold—later this year.

Martyn Fish, partner at HGF Law, said: “I find it difficult to see how the digital copyright exchange will work in practice—what kind of works will be covered?

“It will also be difficult to have a ‘standard’ licence for all digital copyright that can be the basis of a copyright exchange. The idea of a small claims track for IP disputes is also problematic. Just because a claim has a value of less than £5,000 does not mean that it is a straightforward case. The small claims track is just not an appropriate forum for IP disputes.”

Neville Cordell, IP partner at Allen & Overy, said: “A quiet, understated, typically British revolution in copyright law is taking place.”

While many people who make back-up copies of music, films and software will have breached copyright laws, not all home copying is infringement, said Guy Wilmot, solicitor at Russell-Cooke LLP.

“Many copyright licences for content do allow back-up copies, also breach of copyright by copying within a household is rarely if ever enforced.

“The argument is that the problem for innovation is that companies are cautious about developing technology to facilitate home back-up copying as they fear legal consequences such as being found to be a ‘secondary infringer’ (ie allowing or assisting breaches of copyright) however some caution is advised as to whether this is really an issue as the same rules never stopped double-tape decks from being sold.”