On Monday 2 July 2012 the Government issued a Policy Statement on its Consultation on Modernising Copyright. It can be accessed online here: www.ipo.gov.uk/types/hargreaves.htm

Murray Weston, senior advisor to BUFVC and author of the forthcoming BUFVC Guide to Copyright, Can I Copy This?, provides a brief summary and a commentary on its salient points:

Following the publication of the Statement, the Government intends to implement changes to UK legislation relating to ‘orphan works’ and ‘extended collective licensing’ as soon as possible (see p. 13 What Happens Now). This may mean the use of ‘secondary legislation’ through Statutory Instruments rather than a full Act.

Orphan Works
– to introduce arrangements that will provide a process to make ‘legal’ the copying of works where one or more authors or creators are unknown or untraceable. The Statement makes the following proposals – some of which will be subject to further consultation:

• There will be a process established in UK law to provide for the re-use of orphan works
• No sector or type of work will be excluded from the scheme
• Authorising bodies will be established to issue licences
• These bodies shall be independent from those bodies wishing to copy/exploit works
• Diligent search for owners is key to the scheme and an independent body will verify the diligence of the searches
• Commercial and non-commercial uses shall be covered by the scheme
• Permission to copy shall be at a ‘market price’ payable in advance and licences shall be non-exclusive and have a ‘term’ that will allow for revenant rights owners and uncovered exclusive agreements subsequently to be accommodated
• There will be no change to ‘moral rights’ arrangements
• Stripping of metadata/paternity information shall be made illegal
• There will be a ‘registry’ of orphan works established
• Works that are more than 70 years old and are of unknown status shall be included in the scheme
• Unpublished works may be included in the scheme or be regarded as out of copyright
• The scheme shall operate within the EU draft Directive on orphan works and will permit commercial use in the UK

Extended Collective Licensing
– the statement makes proposals to permit and control the activities of collecting societies to collect funds on behalf of creators that have no pre-existing relationship with those societies.

Collecting Societies that wish to go for Extended Collective Licensing will need:

• to volunteer and apply to adopt the ECL scheme
• to apply only if existing society members agree
• to demonstrate that the society is significantly representative of rights owners affected in the relevant sector
• to have a clear code of conduct in place
• to be transparent in the process of governance, disbursement of funds and accounting

Rights holders will have the right to opt out of ECL. N.B. Government has still to determine how to disburse unclaimed royalties from ECL. For the purposes of transparency there is the intention to make collecting societies subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

To download a PDF copy of the document, visit:
www.ipo.gov.uk/types/hargreaves.htm