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Symposium focus on piracy mirrors new initiatives by international publishers: |
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Two months ago the head of the UK Publishers Association, Simon Juden, reiterated his organization’s commitment to making defense of copyright its top international priority. “We’re in a funny place right now with regards to copyright,” said Juden at that time, “There’s a feeling out there among some consumers that everything should be free and they don’t understand the need for copyright. But I don’t get that. Just think of Facebook and its effort to take ownership of the photos. Users fought it because they understood what it meant.”
Specifically, Juden sees the front line in the copyright wars as the ongoing battle against peer-to-peer pirates who already plague the music and movie industries. “It’s just not practical for publishers, even a major corporate player, to sue individuals,” he said.
So, earlier this year, the PA took the matter into their own hands, launching a proprietary Copyright Infringement Portal which offers PA members a free and userfriendly way to request a site to take down content guilty of territorial and/or copyright infringements. A notice board alerts members to potential violators.
As of June 12, some 705 of 799 – or 88% -- of notices to violating Web sites have been effective in getting the infringing content removed.
Perhaps of more importance in the long run is the PA’s close work with the UK government in preparation of the Digital Britain Report, which was issued on June 16. The most interesting aspect of the report concerning publishers is the parameters laid out for brining pirates to justice. Just as Juden had hoped back in May, the internet service providers (ISPs) will be held responsible for policing their own sites.
As Benjamin King, head of Policy & Research at the UK Publishers Association, explained in The Bookseller: “In the first instance Ofcom [The Office of Communications is the UK regulator for both broadcasting and telecommunications] will require ISPs, which it already regulates, to notify subscribers who are identified as infringing copyright online. If after a year this has not brought about a 70% reduction in filesharing, then Ofcom will be expected to use its backstop powers to introduce further measures. These could include blocking sites and limiting the speed of users’ connections.”
Other issues addressed in the report include the status of “orphan works” – those for which a copyright holder might not be found – as well as copyright exceptions for distance learning (e.g. online university courses) and preservation of archive material, and for the potential of extended collective licensing.
Still, the Report is at present merely a set of recommendations and, as King points out, it may take another year for the recommendations to be made into laws and another three years before Ofcom can enforce them.
Atypically for an Englishman, Juden acknowledged in May that the French may be ahead of the curve on this issue. “In France they just passed a law that basically says, ‘three-strikes-you’re-out.’ Now that’s something.” |
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