BCS backs call for overhaul of UK copyright law

The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) and the BCS: The Chartered Institute for IT are among the signatories to an open letter urging the government to overhaul of the British copyright system.

The letter, addressed to David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and other senior MPs, calls for the government to "move forward with the swift and fulsome implementation of the recommendations" of a recent independent review of intellectual property put together by Professor Ian Hargreaves. Other signatories include TechHub, Bootlaw and the British Interactive Media Association.

The bodies say that, if implemented, the recommendations in the report would go a long way toward improving innovation and economic growth in the UK.

They have outlined several "straightforward recommendations" that the bodies urge the government to put in place immediately, such as:

- Adopting exceptions to copyright for format-shifting, parody, non-commercial research and library archiving

- Prohibiting copyright exceptions from being overridden by contract

- Enabling licensing of orphan works

- Giving the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) the power to issue statutory opinions to help clarify copyright law and take other measures to help ensure that Britain's IP system remains focused on promoting innovation and growth

- Causing the IPO to improve the accessibility of the IP system to smaller companies

Other recommendations will be more complicated, the letter stated, either because they require EU involvement or because they are non-legislative measures. These "complex recommendations" include:

- Promoting at EU level copyright exceptions for text and data analytics

- Promoting the inclusion in the EU framework of a mechanism for adapting copyright exceptions to new technologies as they arise

- Supporting moves by the European Commission for establishing a cross-border copyright licensing framework

- Facilitating the creation of a comprehensive "Digital Copyright Exchange" through which works can be licensed in a transparent and simple manner.