Cross-industry trade body UK Music has told the government that it supports proposals for a regulator to oversee copyright issues on the internet. In a submission to a government consultation on the issue of music and the net, UK Music say that, "in view of the historic differences between rights holders and ISPs, some form of regulatory control is required".
As much previously reported, some progress has been made this year regarding the long running dispute between the music industry and the internet service providers, in which the former said the latter had a duty to play a more proactive role in combating online piracy.
Earlier this year the government called on music companies and internet providers to reach a voluntary agreement regarding policing online piracy, threatening to legislate on the issue if they did not. That threat seemingly persuaded some ISPs to make some concessions, and earlier this year record label trade body BPI announced it had entered into a Memorandum Of Understanding with six net firms in which the ISPs pledged to send out warning letters to suspected file sharers, while both sides would collaborate on new legit digital music services and on copyright education programmes.
The MOU probably means the UK government will not need to take as much action as their French counterparts, who are in the process of pushing proposals through their parliament to launch a potentially powerful copyright regulator which will have the power to disconnect serial file sharers who do not heed warnings. However, some feel some kind of regulatory system is also required here to oversee the battle against online piracy, and to adjudicate when interested parties disagree. Media regulator OfCom has previously hinted it would be willing to take on that role, and that is what UK Music propose in their submission.
According to Billboard, the trade body's document says: "A third-party regulator [is] likely to help overcome the mutual caution that has been characteristic of many past discussions between rights holders and ISPs".
It's not clear how the signatories of the aforementioned MOU feel about some kind of government-back regulator in the online copyright protection domain.