Whilst we are focussing on levies in the European sphere, I noticed an interesting
interview with Ian Hargreaves who authored the May 2011 Review of the UK's
intellectual property framework which is now, to an extent, being actioned by the
UK Government.
During the interview, in the ever excellent Out-Law, Hargreaves
questions whether the Government's plans to enable individuals to make private
copies of copyrighted material go far enough, saying that whilst he was broadly
supportive of the way the Government intends to act on the recommendations he
made in his Report, it’s plans in relation to a new private
copying exception could have been more ambitious. Professor Hargreaves says that he agrees with the Government's view that
a new levy system would not have to be introduced to account for a new private
copying right for consumers, saying “I think that it is very difficult to argue
that a levy is owing to compensate for the making lawful a practice that is
already ubiquitous" Hargreaves said. "I think the Government is
right not to go for a levy" adding "the case for a levy arguably does
increase the more latitude you give [the exception]. If we were in a situation
where we could adjust the fine detail of the way that some of these rules and
practices work I think we’d be in a better situation, but we’re not. [Copyright
law] is not a flexible and adaptable system,"
Hargreaves adds "The shortcoming of the new
arrangement will be that it will still feel intuitively incorrect to a lot of
people – I can’t transfer something from my wife’s iPod that I gave her for her
birthday. We transfer the MP3 file into the car player – who owns the car? You
can tie yourself in knots. I don’t want to exaggerate that but if the goal is
to have something which corresponds to the way that the technology is already
encouraging people to behave it is desirable that the law is as close to what
consumers find sensible and rational as possible”.
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