Lord Mandelson’s three-strikes proposal may have gobbled all the headlines. But a parallel package published Wednesday, aimed at liberalising copyright, may prove just as important for some creators…

© The Way Ahead, an Intellectual Property Office paper steered by junior culture minister David Lammy MP, says: “Education and enforcement remain important, but aren’t the whole story ... There is no doubt that overall simplification of the copyright system would be beneficial.”

Broadly, the report concedes: “The digital environment is confusing.” So what is it proposing… ?

—“The copyright system cannot be expected to command public support unless consumers can use works in the ways they want, such as sharing photos with friends on the web. This means rights holders offering works with broader terms of use.”

—It acknowledges that individuals resent restrictions on personal, non-commercial uses of material, and advocates an EU-level distinction between commercial and non-commercial copying...

—That could include legalising more outright copying, the creation of sound/image mashups, format-shifting and sharing material with family and friends, the report says. But: “(This) could impact on revenues for rights holders; (so) an element of fair compensation for any loss would be required” (who will pay?). And commercialising such mashups wouldn’t be allowed under these exceptions.

—In the report, the government calls also calls for a European-level copyright exception that would legitimise “pre-commercial” copying by businesses, because “easier, cheaper access to works would help to stimulate innovation based around those works”.

—The government plans to introduce collective licensing, allowing royalty collection agencies like PRS For Music to license, for example, music even if a musician has not authorised the agency to do so.

—There’s an intention to open orphan works, which currently can’t be re-used, for copying by both cultural bodies and businesses.

Broadly, the report says “the government will examine the evidence for copyright simplification” due to be recommended by a Strategic Advisory Board for IP Policy (SABIP) report due November.

It wants to “move toward a pan-European approach for copyright exceptions in the digital age”, allowing more use of copyrighted works - just one of a range of measures that must be continental because “the UK cannot act independently”.

Lammy, speaking at the C&binet creative industries gathering on Tuesday, put his ambitions full-square in European policymakers’ court.

But the report says it wants to “improve the existing copyright system rather than to devise a radically new one”.

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