Follow-up to our recent post on this issue (UK copyright extension?)…

Purnell’s speech from last week is here. It was a wide-ranging piece, primarily boasting of British success in the creative industries and–for some strange reason–linking it with government policy. And it has the odd-sounding conclusion: DCMS�s job is to create a framework that supports your creativity. Framework?

The copyright portion of Purnell’s speech consisted mostly of the following:

[W]e need to modernise our intellectual property framework, and in places it may need to be strengthened. IP is the bedrock of the creative economy. The Labour Manifesto committed us to modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.

This is vital - to attract creative companies, they need to know that we have an IP regime that will allow them to make returns on their creativity and to invest in innovation. Bands like Coldplay will make enough money for their company to help them discover around 50 or 100 bands. At the same time, an information rich society needs an easy exchange of ideas after all, creativity often comes from collaboration, from putting existing ideas together in new ways. So, we need an IP framework that balances the needs of consumers, creators and businesses.

That means two things - first of all, enforcing existing property rights. The EU estimates that 7% of all world trade is in counterfeit goods, and that we’ve lost over 100,000 jobs over the last 10 years because of counterfeit and pirated products. So, we will shortly announce how we will take forward the recommendations of the Creative Industries IP Forum on education and on tackling piracy.

But we also need to think through whether our IP framework is right for this fast-changing technological environment. I can announce today that DTI and DCMS will set up a joint project to implement our manifesto commitment, chaired by Lord Sainsbury and myself. We will examine in the first place what issues need to be addressed, including the key issue of Digital Rights Management, and the interoperability of new technologies. Obviously the primary role is for industry, which is why we have asked the Creative Industries IP Forum to advise us on this issue.

And the proposed copyright extension? Not mentioned.

The DCMS also created a discussion forum for these issues. Registration is required in order to access the forum. Incongruous.