Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Hargreaves Report on technological change and EU copyright exceptions

From the Report:

Para. 5.22 "... the question is how to build in sufficient flexibility to realise the benefits of new technologies, without losing the core benefits to creators and to the economy that copyright provides. In the US, Fair Use has successfully fulfilled this role in a small number of cases which have been extremely important for the development of consumer technologies, notably those relating to reverse engineering, home video recording, and internet search caching and thumbnail images"
Para 5.23 on the need to explore "with our EU partners a new mechanism in copyright law to create a built-in adaptability to future technologies which, by definition, cannot be foreseen in precise detail by today’s policy makers.
Para 5.24 "We therefore recommend below that the Government should press at EU level for the introduction of an exception allowing uses of a work enabled by technology which do not directly trade on the underlying creative and expressive purpose of the work (this has been referred to as “non-consumptive” use)."