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UK Music welcomes government’s albeit loose commitments on copyright reform
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 4 March 2020
Although the UK government has decided not to implement last year’s European Copyright Directive – which Prime Minister ‘Boris’ Johnson previously dubbed “terrible for the internet” – the country’s current IP minister has made some loose commitments to replicate some of those European copyright reforms in Britain.
Artists, songwriters, labels, publishers, managers and collecting societies in the UK allied with their counterparts across Europe to lobby hard for several of the reforms contained in the final draft of that directive. Most notably, of course, the safe harbour reforms that increase the liabilities of user-upload platforms like YouTube.
With the UK government deciding not to implement the directive post-Brexit because – you know – it’s European so is definitely smelly and wrong, the British music community will have to lobby anew to try to secure similar reforms to UK copyright law.
It’s generally felt that the likes of Google will have a stronger negotiating hand in London than they did in Brussels, which might make getting safe harbour reform trickier. Although the UK government was generally supportive of those reforms when it was still involved in the negotiating process for the EU directive.
That is something IP Minister Amanda Solloway acknowledges in her response to a letter on copyright reform from cross-sector trade group UK Music. She writes: “I understand your concerns that music creators need to be fairly remunerated by platforms when their works are used online. This is something I agree with, which is why the government worked hard in the directive negotiations to secure a good outcome for our creators”.
She goes on: “Although the UK will not be implementing the directive now that we have left the EU, our support for creators has not changed. This government recognises the importance and value of our successful music industry. The UK copyright framework must provide fair rewards for creators in the online ecosystem, while taking into account the needs of consumers and ensuring a thriving digital economy”.
So, there’s the loose commitment. The government’s business and culture departments are expected to host a series of roundtable events later this year involving the music industry to discuss copyright issues. For artists and songwriters, that will also be an opportunity to lobby for the transparency and fair deal provisions that sit in the EU directive alongside the safe harbour reforms that ended up in article seventeen.
Welcoming Sollway’s remarks, interim UK Music boss Tom Kiehl states: “It is very encouraging to get such strong support from the new minister for IP for the music industry and to hear that she believes that creators must be fairly paid for their talent”.
“We look forward to continuing to press the case for copyright safeguards and the other issues facing the music industry at the forthcoming roundtables with the government”, he adds. “This is a critical time for the UK music industry which faces a number of challenges in the months ahead. We will continue to work with the government to drive forward our world-leading industry”.
