Happy New Year? UK Copyright Proposals

As readers of this blog well know, copyright reform has been desperately needed in this country for many years. The earlier Gowers Review was almost totally ignored by the government that commissioned it, and there was always the fear that the more recent Hargreaves Review might suffer the same fate. Miraculously, that seems not to be the case. Just before Christmas, the UK government published its response to the consultation on copyright exceptions and clarifying copyright law with details of how it intends to proceed (.pdf), and they are really pretty good.

On Open Enterprise blog.

UK Copyright Industries Suddenly Become Fans Of Evidence-Based Policy Making

Building on the solid work of the Hargreaves Report on copyright, the UK government took a surprisingly sensible attitude in its proposed implementation of most of Hargreaves' suggestions. The consultation period for those proposals ends shortly, and the panic among the copyright industries that the UK government might actually make copyright slightly less biased in their favor is evident. Here's a Daily Telegraph piece where they try to undermine the economic rationale behind the moves, professing scepticism about UK government claims that modernizing copyright will add billions to the UK economy: 

On Techdirt.

Urgent: Please Reply to UK Copyright Consultation

It seems like the UK copyright studies and consultations have been going on for years - first with the Gowers Review, followed by the Hargreaves Report and concluding with the current consultation on copyright. That consultation ends this Wednesday, so time is running out to make a submission.

On Open Enterprise blog.