The Government’s proposals to change copyright law to “remove unnecessary barriers to growth” have angered journalists, who fear having ownership rights over their work weakened.
Consequently, many industry organisations, including the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Creative Writers Alliance (CWA) and the British Copyright Council (BCC), are lobbying the House of Lords ahead of a debate on the proposals later this month.
The Prime Minister launched the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth back in 2011 and this was then followed by a 14-week consultation, which spawned a number of proposals to reform copyright law.
The Government’s response to the consultation, published late last month, sets out its decisions on changes to the framework for ‘copyright exceptions’. These changes will introduce greater freedoms in copyright law to allow third parties to use copyright works for a variety of economically and/or socially valuable purposes without the need to seek permission from copyright owners.
Protections for the interests of copyright owners and creators are built in to the revised framework, the Government says, adding that it is committed to achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is shared across the country and between industries.
However, lobbyists are concerned that journalists and writers, who rely on rights to their works as a source of income, will get swept up in the same legislation and suffer off the back of it and the industry wants to see caveats put in place that protect its members.
Another proposal is to introduce provisions for “voluntary extended collective licensing schemes”. This would allow authorised collecting societies to license on behalf of all rights holders in a sector. However, union leaders say that these proposals could erode the rights of writers.