Plans to overhaul UK copyright laws have been paused amid concerns that any changes could negatively impact authors.
The announcement comes after the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) launched a consultation last year seeking views on the future of the ‘exhaustion’ of intellectual property rights.
Exhausted intellectual property rights are defined as those that cannot be used to stop the further distribution or resale of those goods.
The consultation proposed changes to the laws that govern when the control of a rights holder over the distribution of their property expires – potentially leading to a huge influx of cheap international editions of books in the UK.
Save Our Books – a campaign launched by the Publishers Association, the Society of Authors, the Association of Authors’ Agents, and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society – warned that the “potentially devastating changes” could result in “fewer books, by fewer authors, for fewer readers”.
According to the group, the move would threaten around two-thirds of authors’ incomes and destroy the creative export market, leading to a potential loss of up to 25 per cent of UK publishing industry revenue and damaging the “already suffering” British high street.
But the Government has now announced plans to pause the reforms as there was “not enough data available” to fully understand the economic impact of any of the alternative regimes.
“As a result, it has not been possible to make a decision based on the criteria originally intended,” said the IPO.
“However, the government remains committed to exploring the opportunities which might come from a change to the regime. Further development of the policy framework needs to happen before reconsidering the evidence and making a decision on the future exhaustion of IP rights regime.”
Responding to the announcement, Stephen Lotinga, of Save Our Books, said: “We are delighted that the government has chosen to maintain the UK’s gold standard copyright regime, which our world-leading creative industries are built on, and that ministers have listened to authors, readers and the wider industry on the risks of any change.”
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