Print
Send to friend
RSS feedsThe British Library, Microsoft, Google and the National Consumer Council are all calling on the government to overhaul the nation’s intellectual property laws. Hats off to them for their pro-active stance – it would be all too easy for powerful companies and what is essentially a government body tasked with looking after the nation’s knowledge to let the state carry on regardless.
The onus is now on the government, whether the current moribund authority or
the next Cabinet. What is worrying for information users, information
professionals and even consumers is that the state has such a poor track record.
Recent legislation includes a fox-hunting ban so badly organised and handled
that even the writers of
Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em couldn’t have come up with a similar caper, while the
wars against Iraq and Afghanistan are spiralling out of control.
Then there’s the issue of government bodies and technology. As the NHS’s grand IT project and the haphazard lurch towards ID cards show, few in Whitehall understand how technology works, and even fewer how it is changing the lives of consumers and information users.
But as the British Library’s chief executive Lynne Brindley rightly points
out, the current position – brought about because those in power are not in
touch with the
changing world – could damage our country. In the past, the chancellor, Gordon
Brown, has talked of Britain’s future as a “knowledge economy”. Well, Gordon, a
knowledge economy is driven by the internet, and the internet needs intellectual
property regulations that protect and reward creators, but also delivers
uninhibited
access so that new ideas in science, engineering, design and the arts can
flourish.
Intellectual property may not have the gravitas of environmental policy or be as important as solving the desperate problems in Iraq, but if a proper framework is not created for creators and users, information will suffer – and so will the nation.
del.icio.us
Digg this
reddit!
