From: Ad 

The backlash continues to gather pace

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6095612.stm

"A think-tank has called for outdated copyright laws to be rewritten
to take account of new ways people listen to music, watch films and read
books.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a
"private right to copy".

It would decriminalise millions of Britons who break the law each year by
copying their CDs onto music players.

Making copies of CDs and DVDs for personal use would have little impact on
copyright holders, the IPPR argues.

Copyright issues have, in the past, been steered too much by the music
industry, the report said.

IPPR deputy director Dr Ian Kearns said: "When it comes to protecting
the interests of copyright holders, the emphasis the music industry has put
on tackling illegal distribution and not prosecuting for personal copying,
is right.

"But it is not the music industry's job to decide what rights
consumers have that is the job of government." "

"Report author Kay Withers said: "The idea of all-rights reserved
doesn't make sense for the digital era and it doesn't make sense to have a
law that everyone breaks. To give the IP regime legitimacy it must command
public respect."

Intellectual property laws are currently being reviewed by the government.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has asked chairman Sir Andrew Gowers to report his
findings back ahead of the pre-budget report in November.

The IPPR is hoping to influence this with its report, entitled Public
Innovation: Intellectual property in a digital age.

Its key recommendation is that any policy regarding Intellectual Property
policy should recognise that knowledge is a public resource first and a
private asset second. "

""The internet offers unprecedented opportunities to share ideas
and content," the report says.

"Knowledge must, therefore, perform the roles of both commodity and
social glue, both private property and public domain," it adds.

The report looks at how Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies -
which restrict the sharing of music or other intellectual property - are
affecting attempts to preserve electronic content.

It argues that the British Library should be given a DRM-free copy of any
new digital work and that libraries should be able to take more than one
copy of digital work.

Ms Withers said: "We charge the British Library as being the
collective memory of the nation and increasingly it has to archive digital
content.

"More and more academic journals are delivered digitally but copyright
laws aren't designed to deal with digital content."

She said there was often a conflict between DRM and accessibility
technologies which needs to be addressed. "

"The report also calls for the government to reject calls from the UK
music industry to extend the copyright term for sound recording beyond the
current 50 years.  "

Basically my position.....

Public common good first & foremost & dead authors don't create new content.

adam

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