ALCS demands compensation for copyright exemptions

The call came in response to the Gowers Review of intellectual property, which recommended the decriminalisation of private copying of legally acquired content onto an electronic device for personal use.

ALCS CEO Owen Atkinson said that if copyright exceptions were brought in, they should be accompanied by compensation.

“The UK is very much out of kilter with the rest of Europe in terms of the way it deals with private copying,” Atkinson said. “The way the European model works is that on top of the cost of a photocopier or MP3 player or DVD player, there is a small amount added to recognise that there is a value in all the creative content.”

In the EU, only the UK, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta have no compensatory measures for reuse of content.

The issue has come to the fore with the launch of the Amazon Kindle and other e-book readers, which might let users copy books and articles freely.

“We need to crack down on people who blatantly abuse and commercially benefit from illegal activity,” Atkinson said.