back to menuNfCG has a ‘Hot Issues Group’ that brings together for the first time, grass roots consumers, consumer organisations and business. It identifies hot issues and discusses options for practical action.
One such ‘Hot Issue’ is the proposal for a Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society - ‘The Copyright Directive’.
Of course we do not wish to see composers, authors, engineers, architects, artists and many others deprived of the rightful rewards of their labour. Neither do we wish to see consumers prevented from using their digital audio and television recorders to record programmes they are unable to enjoy at the time of broadcast, for viewing or listening at a later date.
Broadcasters fear that this may indeed come about and also that they will be prevented from making many programmes because of the danger of infringing copyright to buildings, illustrations, works of art and any number of artifacts which, at present, are not subject to copyright law in this country. Imagine having to stop filming in Kosovo because the Russian Government holds the copyright to the design of the tanks which are in the picture.
Content producers could incorporate technical protection systems which would prevent digital recorders being used for private copying.
NfCG Chairman , Marie Jennings, has written to the DTI expressing our concerns about the draft Copyright Directive which, we think, veers too much towards protectionism, and she asks that the Government press for a degree of subsidiarity on this issue.
Dr. Kim Howells, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Competition and Consumer Affairs at the DTI, has just replied.
He said that the Government fully supported the main aims of the draft Directive to ensure that copyright owners have appropriate rights throughout the EU to control the use of their material in the on-line environment as well as off-line.
However he also said "we have always been of the view that the article on exceptions is unnecessarily prescriptive and leaves insufficient flexibility for Member States". He pointed out that the recently published amended proposals, accepted by the European Commission, have further restricted the exception provisions, and the DTI largely shares the concerns expressed in Marie Jennings’ letter.
The Government will continue to press strongly in the Council of Ministers for greater flexibility in the exception provisions. There is still much to discuss in the Council before any agreement is reached and then the European Parliament has to be persuaded. Several other States have expressed similar concerns about exceptions. "We certainly hope", he said in his letter, "that it will prove possible to achieve improvements in the Directive". So do we.
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