Research commissioned by those BPI chaps seems to show majority support among British consumers for an extension in the recording copyright in Britain.
As previously reported, the record industry is currently lobbying the UK government, which is currently reviewing its copyright laws, with a view to getting the copyright on recorded material extended. In the UK, and across Europe, that copyright is currently 50 years - but the industry wants it to be brought in line with the equivalent copyright in the US, which runs for 95 years.
In a survey undertaken by YouGov on behalf of the BPI, 62% of those surveyed agreed that UK recording copyrights should be brought inline with the US. Only 20% opposed the proposal, with 18% undecided.
Results of the survey precede plans by the industry trade body to supply MPs with a leaflet outlining their case for copyright extension which in turn precedes the results of the government's Gower Review into intellectual property rights. The leaflet will argue that a copyright extension is vital to support the unique cultural asset of the UK music industry, to drive re-investment in the creative economy, to end the discrimination of protection afforded to other cultural industries, to benefit consumers through increased availability of music at no extra cost and to boost UK's international competitiveness in the global knowledge economy.
Commenting on the YouGov poll, BPI chief Peter Jamieson told reporters this weekend: "We are hugely encouraged that the majority of British consumers agree with us that UK musicians should receive as much copyright protection as their US counterparts. Our unique and internationally renowned industry would use a term extension to continue to invest heavily in the creative economy for future generations and consolidate the rights and works of our cultural ambassadors".
In not entirely unrelated news, the BPI's Director Of Public Affairs has been speaking to legal website Out-Law.com about private copying rights - one of the other topics up for discussion during the Gower Review. As previously reported, this relates to consumers making copies of CDs for their own private use - eg ripping copies of tracks to their PC or MP3 player, or making a CDR copy for use in the car. Technically speaking, according to current UK copyright law, making such private copies is illegal but, of course, everyone does it and no record label in its right mind (which is nearly all of them) would ever sue someone for doing it. With that in mind various groups including, most recently, the Institute For Public Policy Research, have called for a change in the law that makes such private copying legal.
The BPI itself has acknowledged that the current situation regarding private copying is a bit stupid, and has confirmed that it wouldn't pursue legal action against anyone copying music from a CD to an MP3 player for their own private use. However, BPI man Richard Mollet, speaking to Out-Law.com last week, said that didn't necessarily mean the industry association supported a change in the law in this area. While stressing that the BPI didn't have a "hard and fast" policy on this, Mollet implied that the BPI would rather the law stayed the same, but with record labels providing consumers with "formal authorisation" to make private copies of their music (the authorisation would most likely be stated on CD releases). Mollet: "We certainly agree with the line that something needs to be done. Whether one actually changes the law or not is actually a moot point because it is possible to give consumers that permission simply through authorisation from existing rights holders".
This, of course, would keep the ultimate control on private copying in the hands of the content owners - labels could always stop giving authorisation on new releases at some point in the future. Most probably with that in mind, Kay Withers, speaking for the aforementioned IPPR, said private copying should be dealt with by a change in the actual law rather than the introduction of a new 'authorisation practice' by the record labels. She told the legal website: "It's good that the BPI have said that they're not going to prosecute but it should be the Government deciding what the consumers and citizens rights are, rather than citizens. What the law currently would expect consumers to do just doesn't really seem fair. Asking someone who buys a CD in HMV to then have to go to a digital music store and buy that content again so that they can listen to it both on their hi-fi and on their MP3 player just doesn't seem fair."