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PAN Report 2: BAPLA Meet The IPO

Feb 22. 2012
05:02
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ByJohn BaleanBAPLA discusses the Digital Copyright Exchange Feasibility Study with Richard Hooper

Following the last report PAN reporter John Balean attended the latest meeting between BAPLA and the IPO – Intellectual Property Office last week at the Press Association HQ in Victoria, London.

BAPLA held another pro-active meeting with the IPO this week to discuss the Digital Copyright Exchange Feasibility Study with Richard Hooper who is leading the call for evidence. The meeting was held at the Press Association, London and was again attended by a well represented selection of the BAPLA membership to express their views.

The study is a much shorter document than previous ones and can be found here. It contains just two response questions and I would advise any rights holder (individual, BAPLA member, or non-BAPLA member) to download and read it as soon as possible, the deadline from responses is imminent – Friday 10 February 2012.

Richard Hooper stressed that they were seeking industry led solutions to the main problems that have been raised with him so far which include:

  1. Complexity – rights users are having to locate and negotiate with multiple rights holders in a range of media often dealing with 20+ collecting societies and 150+ associations.
  2. Siloed structure – rights holders mostly handle just one area e.g. we do music only, if you need film rights you need to go there.
  3. International complications – the digital age is now global so rights need to be cross border.

One solution is the proposal of a Digital Copyright Exchange but he stressed:

  • that it was not considered along the lines of a copyright registry,
  • the solutions are voluntary,
  • it was not a government IT project,
  • it will not operate as a transaction exchange,
  • it should be funded by industry to the benefit of industry,
  • moral rights will be preserved,
  • they are working to remove the barriers between IP holders and users, not to add them.

The members of BAPLA present at the meeting raised their reservations about the introduction and management of a DCE and explained that the picture industry was made up of a series of digital content exchanges, that the market was both very mature and international. We impressed upon Richard that many of the issues raised in his paper had already been considered by our sector; we have evolved to streamline copyright licensing in the digital age, to the benefit of rights holders and rights users.

Richard Hooper was very encouraged by the response as the meeting suggested our industry had ‘its house in order’. He welcomed submissions to the call for evidence but advised not to answer the questions in the defensive, ‘do not see this as a threat’. Instead he would really appreciate clear examples and case study evidence that can be used as examples of copyright licensing in practice, what is working, what is not working and what could be done to solve it.

BAPLA was offered a follow up meeting to discuss developments during the next phase of the study.

If you would like to know more or understand what this means for your agency or library John Balean is happy to be contacted by PAN readers – contact him here johnb@topfoto.co.uk

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