More Copyright Consultations in UK...

(Tod Baker, CC License)


(Little Tufty, one of the IPKat bloggers, is keeping an eye on one of the entertainment industry lobbyists who is making a point about exceptions and limitations)

One of the best IP blogs anywhere, the IPKat out of England, is having a small hissy fit about the latest UK government's copyright consultation effort. The bright minds behind this blog are hardly radical outliers in IP. They have quite impeccable pedigrees. Here's a clue to what they are hissing about and why it is making their tails fluff up:

The consultation document, available here (pdf), makes for some quite dull reading (although it is mercifully brief), as it doesn't really say anything of substance. What it does say is the usual guff about "creative industries" being important to the UK economy in the 21st century. What it doesn't say is why these creative industries need copyright terms that will, in many cases, last well into the 22nd century.

Anyway, Canadians, too, are presumably free to comment on the big four rather unoriginal questions - to which the IPKat has suggested answers, of course. These questions are:

Q. Does the current system provide the right balance between commercial certainty and the rights of creators and creative artist? Are creative artists sufficiently rewarded/protected through their existing rights?

Q. Is our current system too complex, in particular in relation to the licensing of rights, rights clearance and copyright exceptions? Does the legal enforcement framework work in the digital age?

Q. Does the current copyright system provide the right incentives to sustain investment and support creativity? Is this true for both creative artists and commercial rights holders? Is this true for physical and online exploitation? Are those who gain value from content paying for it (on fair and reasonable terms)?

Q. What action, if any, is needed to address issues related to authentication? In considering the rights of creative artists and other rights holders is there a case for differentiation? If so, how might we avoid introducing a further complication in an already complicated world?

Answers are due by February 9, 2009.

HK