Richard Hooper's "Phase 2" report on copyright licensing was published on 31 July 2012, recommending the creation of a not-for-profit industry led and funded "Copyright Hub" to facilitate copyright education and licensing, to be overseen by a new steering group. This report follows his diagnostic "Phase 1" report published in March 2012.
Both reports originate from the Hargreaves Review of May 2011, a key recommendation of which was to launch a cross-industry digital copyright exchange. It is now the turn of industry to step in to develop and fund the various projects which are already under way (such as the Linked Content Coalition, which began in the publishing sector but has now expanded, and the Global Repertoire Database and the Global Recording Database in the music industry), together with new initiatives.
Also, following on from a number of other Hargreaves Review recommendations, the Government announced recently that it soon plans to introduce legislation dealing with commercial and non-commercial exploitation of "orphan" works, voluntary extended collective licensing and codes of conduct for collecting societies. It has also issued a paper on the future role of the Intellectual Property Office.
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The original publication date for this article was 09/08/2012.
