In a thought-provoking Guardian article published yesterday, Cory Doctorow, the digital media commentator, grabbed my attention with a dire warning about the Digital Economy Bill, currently working its way through Parliament.
Doctorow writes that the BPI, the record labels’ trade association, is well aware that the Bill serves the interests of conservatives in the music industry – those who want the most inflexible interpretation of what constitutes fair use of copyright material (i.e. you can’t copy music, not even for back-up let alone have several copies of the same piece of music available for use on your PC, iPod, home entertainment centre etc). He accuses the BPI, who have been the most effective lobby of politicians over digital rights, of stifling real debate over the Bill by acquiesing in the government’s determination to get the Bill enacted before the general election which must be held by May.
Cory Doctorow, photo by Joi Ito, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
The particular danger is in an amendment to the DEB which was inserted during the Bill’s passage through the Lords. The amendment would give copyright holders the ability to seek an injuction forcing an ISP (such as BT, Virgin or Carphone Warehouse) to block access to a website that gave access to material that the copyright holder had previously requested be taken down as infringing copyright. This gives a potentially draconian weapon to copyright holders in any dispute over fair use of copyright material. That such disputes will arise is inevitable, since the government has sought to avoid the political storm that would arise by trying to amend the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 to permit new forms of fair use of copyright material in a digital age which the Act could not anticipate.
Doctorow’s article is a wake-up call to anyone who wants to see successful, new business models built around digital music. The take-away is that if we don’t start lobbying MPs and Peers now – and get this Bill stopped before the election, we’ll end up with an albatross that will severely inhibit the ability of the UK to compete as a centre for innovative online music businesses.
One of the best ways to get your voice heard is to join Coadec (the Coalition for the Digital Economy) and circulate its open letter to newspapers or the excellent blog post by Jeff Lynn.
