Gowers considered cutting copyright lifespan

 

Gallery

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 26 Apr 2007 at 11:19

Andrew Gowers has revealed that he considered cutting the 50-year copyright limit on sound recordings in his government-sponsored review of UK intellectual property laws and only decided to recommend that the status quo be retained because it was 'politically prudent' to do so.

Gowers told the Out-law podcast that, rather than concede the music industry's demand for longer protection up to 95 years, evidence submitted to the review suggested that there was a strong case for deciding that 50 years is too long.

'We certainly considered it, and if you look at the report that came from the academics that we commissioned to examine the arguments and examine the evidence they also argued very robustly that 50 years could be arguably more than enough,' Gowers said. 'In the end we took the politically prudent course. To be honest reducing it in any case would be a very big international debate. It would stand very little chance of making headway in Europe.'

Gowers submitted his report in December of last year. As well as rejecting calls for an extension of copyright on sound recordings he recommended a strengthening of the law to combat commercial counterfeiting - which is likely to be implemented by the EU in any case - but said that restrictions on private copying should be relaxed to formally legalise the de facto right to private copying for personal use.

He told Out-law that the report reflected his view that rights-holders had long had enough influence over intellectual property laws.

'The people demanding more intellectual property protection have tended to be larger, better financed, more articulate than the fragmented number of consumers who pay the price for it,' he said.