Consultation on Implementing Gower's Recommendations
Gum shields in, out of your corner - Round 2!

Following on from the Gower's Report on Intellectual Property, published in December 2006, certain of his recommendations to change copyright legislation are now being consulted on.

This 1st round of consultation and meetings will be followed by a 2nd consultation and draft legislation in readiness for an announcement in the Queen's speech in November. This is quite a tight schedule so it remains to be seen as to whether the Government departments will manage it, however, we need to get our voices heard in this 1st round which closes on 8th April 2008.

The full consultation document can be found at http://www.ipo.gov.uk/consult-copyrightexceptions.pdf

The Gowers recommendations under consideration are:

• Recommendation 2: Enable educational provisions to cover distance learning and interactive whiteboards by 2008 by amending sections 35 and 36 of the CDPA.
• Recommendation 8: Introduce a limited private copying exception by 2008 for format shifting for works published after the date that the law comes into effect. There should be no accompanying levies for consumers.
• Recommendation 9: Allow private copying for research to cover all forms of content. This relates to the copying, not the distribution, of media.
• Recommendation 10a: Amend s.42 of the CDPA by 2008 to permit libraries to copy the master copy of all classes of work in permanent collection for archival purposes and to allow further copies to be made from the archived copy to mitigate against subsequent wear and tear.
• Recommendation 10b: Enable libraries to format shift archival copies by 2008 to ensure records do not become obsolete.
• Recommendation 12: Create an exception to copyright for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche by 2008.

All of the recommendations will affect photographers if they are introduced as exceptions, however some will affect you more than others. In particular recommendations 8, 9 and 12.

The AOP will be replying to the consultation and meeting with UKIPO to discuss our concerns - your input will help this process enormously. Please contact Gwen at gwen@aophoto.co.uk

You are probably wondering what happened to the recommendation on "Orphan Works" - sadly this has not gone away. "Orphans" have been taken up by the EU Commission as part of the i2010 digital libraries initiative. High Level Working Groups have been set up by the Commission to work on guidelines for identifying and working with Orphan Works - we are part of the Visual working group. Two meetings have been held in Brussels and another in London - a further 2 meetings are scheduled (London then Brussels) in the lead up to recommended guidelines on "due diligence' and licensing. Whilst we are opposed to the whole concept of Orphan works we have to be realistic - there will be a directive from the EU and member countries will legislate for Orphans. What we have to ensure is that as few works as possible are classed as Orphans and those that are, are licensed collectively by collecting societies - so nothing is free.

Gwen Thomas
Executive Director
Business & Legal Affairs

Association of Photographers