Exceptions in copyright law are fundamental to the economy says CEO of the British Library Dame Lynne Brindley

09 January 2008

A launch of a new consultation on the future of copyright law sparks fresh debate

The British Library's Chief Executive Lynne Brindley has spoken passionately today about the vital need for exceptions in copyright law, calling for openness and transparency in the IP debate at the launch of the UK Intellectual Property Office's consultation “Taking Forward Gowers Review of Intellectual Property”. The consultation's proposed changes to copyright exceptions and their significance to future copyright law engaged the audience of authors, representatives of the UK's leading creative industry organisations and academic associations in a lively debate. The speaker panel included Lord Triesman, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Intellectual Property and Quality, Geoff Taylor, CEO British Phonographic Industry, Murray Weston, CEO British Universities Video Council and Jill Johnstone, Director National Consumer Council.

Dame Lynne Brindley said that the British Library would be engaging many parties in the ongoing debate, with the support and backing of the UKIPO's energetic leadership.

In her opening speech she told the invited audience : “I have criticised the debate as too focussed on teenagers, music and consumer industries – and certainly one size does not appear to fit all.

“Depending on how and where exceptions are allowed they can facilitate learning, research, education, and the reporting of news as well as support artistic and literary criticism, just to mention a few areas. The British Library, as one of the world's largest research libraries, represents research and education and is therefore interested in how exceptions may affect private study, education and research in this country – from life-changing scientific research to research and scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.”

She continued: “It is the role of a government to weigh the competing interests of a healthy public domain, which engenders education, innovation and creativity, with the private interests of the individual creator and industry sector to monetize or make profit, healthy living, pension etc. from the fruit of their labours. Copyright law is a complex ecosystem of competing requirements and it is for government, through well-balanced and evidenced public policy formation, to square this set of often conflicting requirements for the greater good of society and the economy.

“The Gowers report was about establishing a well-respected and democratic IP regime fit for purpose in the digital world. It would seem to me that some of the questions that need to be asked in this consultation are:

1. How can we best ensure the interests of rights holders are respected and protected, while at the same time respecting and protecting established exceptions that are present in copyright to engender knowledge, learning and creativity?

2. How can a complex area of law like copyright be simplified to the point of intelligibility, and therefore gain legitimacy amongst the new generation of digital natives who see the right to mix, mash-up and share as being exactly that, a right?

3. And how can the democratically established public interest elements of our copyright law, as represented by exceptions, be translated and made relevant in the digital age, when they are being undermined by private contract?

4. To what extent will or should copyright law be harmonised internationally, and to what extent will national differences in law be defensible or desirable on the internet – a world with linguistic but not geographic borders?”

For further information and interviews, please contact: Lawrence Christensen at the British Library Press Office, +44 (0)20 7412 7114, lawrence.christensen@bl.uk or Suvi Kankainen, +44 (0)20 7412 7105, suvi.kankainen@bl.uk

Notes for Editors

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. www.bl.uk.

Intellectual Property Office Exceptions Consultation Launch at the British Library, 08 January 2008

Chair

• Ian Fletcher – CEO UK IPO

Speakers

• Lord Triesman – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Intellectual Property and Quality
• Lynne Brindley – Chief Executive of the British Library
• Murray Weston – CEO British Universities Video Council
• Geoff Taylor – CEO British Phonographic Industry
• Jill Johnstone – Director National Consumer Council

The British Library has a very direct interest in copyright law:

• As a publisher, a re-publisher, a content aggregator, in traditional and digital forms and across many disciplines:
• As a comprehensive information provider on IP; primarily to support entrepreneurs and small companies – from business inception and launch, through business development and hopefully growth;
• As recipients and beneficiaries of legal and voluntary deposits across published forms;
• Through breaking new ground in hybrid business models for the digital environment, working across traditional not-for-profit, commercial and now social production (Web 2.0) boundaries.

The British Library's digital activity encompasses every aspect of collecting, preserving and providing access to the world's digital heritage, but also includes using digitisation technologies to open up the Library's collections to online users throughout the UK and across the world. We do this by

• Capturing born-digital material – through voluntary deposit and other digital acquisitions and by developing a robust, scaleable storage solution through our Digital Object Management (DOM) programme;
• Digitising our collections – working with private partners such as Microsoft on the mass digitisation of out-of-copyright books and with funders such as the JISC to digitise 4,000 hours of Archival Sound Recordings and 1 million pages of historic newspapers;
• Digital preservation – a cross-directorate team works to address the complex preservation and access challenges posed by the diverse and ephemeral nature of digital technology; the Library's leadership of the EU-funded Planets Project aims to tackle the issue at European level;
• Supporting research – through partnerships such as UK PubMed Central, a free and permanent online archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the medical and life sciences.