The Association Of Independent Music said Gowers' report was a "noteworthy contribution to the continuing debate about the role and future of the creative industries in Great Britain" but added that "AIM and its members are very disappointed by the two key recommendations relating to issues vital to the UK music industry, and can only reject these firmly".
The two issues of contention are the private copyright and the lack of a copyright extension. On the former, the Association said that while Gower's private copyright proposals appeared "to satisfy AIM's urge to be pragmatic" that "such an exception applied without any reciprocal benefit to the creator and copyright owner is taking pragmatism to the point of capitulation, and falls drastically short of creating the progressive copyright framework needed in the digital age".
They continued: "By tidying up a small part of the copyright law, we believe Gowers may well be opening the floodgates to uncontrolled and unstoppable private copying and sharing from person to person, as well as format to format. Once owned, however acquired, music will be passed on freely. It ignores the principle of granting a concession to an exclusive right in return for some kind of remuneration - a principle long served in much of Europe by levies on blank recording hardware and software. The fact that these levies, across the board, may be judged to be working imperfectly and arguably may require some reform (possibly even replacement by some system which fulfils the objective more efficiently or imaginatively), rationalization does not detract from the essential justice of their existence".
Of course this is an area of much interest to AIM who advocate a brand new copyright system that obligates any commercial enterprises profiting on the back of music distribution, directly or indirectly, to pay a share of its revenues as a copyright levy. These proposals, which would arguably affect internet service providers and mobile companies in the main, could be extended to include a levy for private copying rights. Though personally I find this kind of proposed copyright system (referred to by AIM as the 'Value Recognition' system) mind numbingly complicated, so I don't blame Gowers for not including it in his review.
Back to the more straightforward issue of copyright extension, or not, AIM continued: "Copyright extension is a complex issue. There are pros and cons to extension, but after much debate, AIM's view is that parity between the USA and writers and composers is only just, fair and reasonable, and any other arrangement represents discrimination against the performers who bring the music to life".