Tougher Penalties For Online Copyright Infringement In The UK

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

19 June 2009

Following the publication of the Digital Britain Report on June 16, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) has outlined proposals to improve copyright licensing and increase financial penalties for online infringers.

The new measure include:

• Legislative changes to license orphan works. Legislation will effectively deal with this issue in order to remove the infringement risk that currently prevents collecting societies licensing orphan works (arising as they do not have a mandate from the rights holder.) This will benefit cultural organizations by allowing them access to currently unusable material. It will also enable public access to a great number of historical works that are currently locked up.
• New powers for government to authorize collecting societies to set up extended licensing schemes. This will allow certain collecting societies to act for a group of rights holders even if they are not all members of the society, unless a specific rights holder has opted out of the scheme.
• Underpinning the operation of collecting societies. As collecting societies reach out to new groups of customers, the UK-IPO believes it needs to underpin their operations with a statutory backed framework.
• Consultation on improving operations of collecting societies. The government will not make recommendations to utilize the above powers without formal public consultation with stakeholders and other interested parties.
• Matched penalties for online and physical IP infringement. This proposal will introduce a statutory maximum penalty of GBP50,000 (USD81,266) for all IP offences.

Commenting on the new proposals, David Lammy, Minister of State for Intellectual Property said:

"We must have the tools in place to tackle serious and organized IP crime. The proposed GBP50,000 (USD81,266) maximum penalty for online and physical infringement sends a clear message to IP criminals. In this online age, IP infringement warrants a serious response. It needs to be stamped out- regardless of whether the offence is online or offline."

He added:

"In order to modernize and streamline the existing copyright system, I’m proposing a number of changes to the way collecting societies can operate."

"I want to see greater development to ensure that our orphan works such as those great cultural works amassed in the BBC and the British Library are accessible to those who wish to benefit from them. We should underpin the operation of collecting societies so that customers receive similar services and safeguards they would expect when dealing with a quality utility company."

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