Let the IP debate begin
I’m logged on to the BBC Parliament channel this morning, awaiting Gordon Brown’s pre budget report, which should start in 15 minutes. The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property will be released after this speech.
As a precursor to the report, my column in openDemocracy asks whether the government will go with Gowers’ leaked recommendation, that copyright on sound recordings remain at 50 years.
Read the rest here.
Once the review has been published, I’ll be interviewing Andrew Gowers face to face. I’ve only got fifteen minutes, but if anyone has anything they’re burning to ask, leave them in the comments and I’ll try and include them.
As a precursor to the report, my column in openDemocracy asks whether the government will go with Gowers’ leaked recommendation, that copyright on sound recordings remain at 50 years.
“The review has attracted submissions from the British Libraryto the National Union of Journalists, from digital-rights campaigners to the Open Rights Group to recording industry representatives the British Phonographic Institute (BPI). All in all, around 500 individuals and organisations submitted evidence to the review, a figure widely believed to have set a record for submissions to any independent review commissioned by the UK government.
“Why has there been so much interest? Perhaps because, until this point, there has been no effective, accessible forum for debating IP in the UK - or indeed anywhere. “The sense that democratic dialogue is failing on this topic is a serious one”, write Kay Withers and William Davies of the Institute for Public Policy Research in their recent paper Public Innovation, concluding a nine-month research project into the UK’s current intellectual-property framework. Gowers, it seems, opened the doors to such a dialogue. How his review is interpreted by government later this week will be crucial…”
Read the rest here.
Once the review has been published, I’ll be interviewing Andrew Gowers face to face. I’ve only got fifteen minutes, but if anyone has anything they’re burning to ask, leave them in the comments and I’ll try and include them.
