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Information Online 2009

Rights management – does copyright still matter in the 21st

century?

20 January, 2009

Caroline MorganGeneral Manager, Corporate Relations

Copyright Agency Limited

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“The internet is a copy machine.”- Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired magazine

Characteristics of internet content

User Generated Content

Abundance of content

Culture of sampling and sharing

Role of intermediaries (eg; search engines)

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Solution = blame the copyright system

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The arguments

#1: Copyright hampers innovation and creative reuse of content

#2: People need accessible content. Copyright leads to ‘digital lock-up’

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Argument #1: Copyright hampers innovation

What does copyright do? It provides a way for creators to be associated with their works and to control and get paid for the use of their works if they wish to – isn't that still important?

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Payment

“Audiences WANT to pay creators”- Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired magazine

According to Kelly, in the digital environment users will pay only if it is easy, reasonable and they can be sure the money goes directly to the creator

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Payment

Radiohead’s 2007 album In Rainbows Customers chose price – option to pay

nothing Record of the Day’s online survey found

the average price was £3.88

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Creative freedom

YouTube Partner Program : “cash in on your creativity”

Creators of original content share in advertising revenue from their YouTube videos

Thousands of participants, some earning substantial incomes

Creators have the capacity to earn an income online when they legitimately own their content

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So how can we develop these licensing systems ?

Collecting societies

Managing the use of copyright content

Transition of collective licensing systems onto the internet

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Licensing music

iTunes – creators get paid via collective management agreements

The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and Performing Rights Society (PRS): UK collecting societies for songwriters, composers and music publishers

2007 – MCPS-PRS Alliance agrees to license 10 million+ pieces of music to YouTube

50,000 members to be paid when their creative works are used on YouTube across the UK

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CAL’s contribution

CAL manages the copying of print material and distributes payments to creators

CAL’s Electronic Use System (EUS) captures electronic copying and communication of copyright material by educational sector

Creators paid for the use of their blogs and other content in education

New marketplace developments

Google’s 2008 settlement with authors and publishers

If approved by the Court:– Google will compensate copyright owners – Google will pay to establish a Book Rights

Registry to locate and distribute payments to copyright owners and enable rightsholders to request inclusion or exclusion

A form of collective management

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Argument #2: People need accessible content. Copyright leads to ‘digital lock-up’

Copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM) = ‘digital lock-up’?

Copyright is a system of balancing the needs of creators and users

DRM tools that ‘lock-up’ content

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The copyright balance

The copyright system offers varying mechanisms for access and use: - limited term of use

- protects expression not ideas - applicable to a ‘substantial part’ - exceptions and limitations

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Exceptions

The ‘three-step test’

Do we need a new international instrument on exceptions and limitations? Or is the three-step test enough?

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Access under the current system

The educational statutory licence

Balancing the copying needs of educational institutions with the rights of creators

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Other solutions

Statutory licence, administered by CAL for the print disabled

CAL is developing solutions for the print disabled in consultation with the print disability sector and CAL members (copyright owners)

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The ‘digital lock-up’

Access controls one aspect of rights management

But rights management also includes tools to access and locate content…

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Automated Content Management

Digital technology provides the opportunity to embed identifiers = automated “rights” management

What needs identifying?

– PRODUCTS – ISTC– PEOPLE - ISNI– TRANSACTIONS – ACAP

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ISTC

The International Standard Text Code (ISTC) is a numbering system developed to identify of “textual” works not their “manifestations”

The ISTC identifies the text of the work itself, not a physical product

The ISTC facilitates the exchange of information and reduces errors and duplication

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International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI)

A new ISO standard called ISNI is under development

The ISNI takes into account different roles – it’s a name identifier not a party identifier

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Automated Content Access Protocol(ACAP)

Global permissions tool

Search engine web-crawlers remain compliant with the policies publishers attach to content

Publishers control online content from misuse

Users access reliable published content, without need to interpret legal terms of copyright material

The copyright balance

To ensure that copyright remains relevant, we need:

Quick and simple licensing Adequate enforcement measures Better understanding of the flexibilities in

the current copyright system Tools to locate content and identify licensing

terms

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Thank You