Copyright consultation

The United Kingdom government is currently consulting on copyright law and have requested comments by 6 February 2009. The purpose of this meta page is to bring together thoughts and considerations to inform a response by Wikimedia UK or individuals within the community (or both).

Consultation page

The website for the consultation is here. This includes an "Issues Paper" with a deadline of 6 February, which will be followed by a "Discussion Paper" which will have a deadline of Summer 2009. There will also be "A series of meetings and events ... to enable interested parties to debate the key issues and possible solutions"

Questions

The questions asked in the Issues Papers:

Rights of creators

Q. Does the current system provide the right balance between commercial certainty and the rights of creators and creative artist? Are creative artists sufficiently rewarded/protected through their existing rights?

Licensing system

Q. Is our current system too complex, in particular in relation to the licensing of rights, rights clearance and copyright exceptions? Does the legal enforcement framework work in the digital age?

Supporting creativity

Q. Does the current copyright system provide the right incentives to sustain investment and support creativity? Is this true for both creative artists and commercial rights holders? Is this true for physical and online exploitation? Are those who gain value from content paying for it (on fair and reasonable terms)?

Authentication

Q. What action, if any, is needed to address issues related to authentication? In considering the rights of creative artists and other rights holders is there a case for differentiation? If so, how might we avoid introducing a further complication in an already complicated world?