machine-envy

The House of Commons have started debating Gordon Brown’s speech and the Gowers Review has been published online. Here it is.

I’m reading over it now. Eye-catching recommendations include:

• tougher penalties for online copyright infringement - with a maximum 10 years imprisonment
• consulting on the use of civil damages as a deterrent for IP infringement
• business representatives sit on a new independent Strategic Advisory Board on IP Policy, advising the Government (what, no public interest groups?)
• a strictly limited ‘private copying’ exception to enable consumers to format-shift content they purchase for personal use. For example to legally transfer music from CD to their MP3 player
• clarifying (library) exceptions to copyright to make them fit for the digital age
• recommending that the European Commission does not change the status quo and retains the 50 year term of copyright protection for sound recordings and related performers’ rights

UPDATE: Those with a particular interest in the term extension debate might like to check out this report, commissioned by the Review, into the economic arguments for and against.

This entry was posted by Becky Hogge on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 1:22 pm and is filed under freeculture, law, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.