Reshuffles and IP ministers

Another reshuffle, another IP minister; last week the Government announced it would appoint Baroness Neville Rolfe as the BIS minister responsible for IP and copyright, replacing predecessor Viscount Younger of Leckie. 

Baroness Neville Rolfe is undoubtedly an experienced operator with an impressive career spanning politics and business.  But, the continuing change in post does create a bit of a disconnect and uncertainty for those of us in the business of protecting the rights of creators.

The Register’s Andrew Orlowski neatly outlines some of the challenges that the new IP minister will face and points out that we have now had four IP ministers in less than two years.   If you go further back in time the figure reaches a total of seven IP ministers in seven years.

Despite all this, it is of course good news that the Government continues to take IP seriously enough to have a responsible minister for the brief.   We hope that Baroness Neville Rolfe will take a long hard look at whether statutory instruments, a fast track method of altering copyright exceptions with limited parliamentary scrutiny, is wise given the sometimes unintended impact even small changes to copyright exceptions can have on the UK creative industries.

Market changes in media monitoring

Karl Marx talked of the inexorable centralization and concentration of capital. Media monitoring, like other industries, has seen huge changes in the past 15 years.  Advanced technology has replaced scissors and glue, and businesses have invested to keep up with client demand for ever more sophisticated monitoring and evaluation services. In the UK and across the globe the much derided venture capital industry has provided the finance for major players to restructure their businesses, but now a wave of ownership changes have been announced or are in prospect.

Precise, UK no 2 by market share, has been sold to WPP-owned Kantar. Cision, a major international brand and formerly UK no 3  (then known as as Romeike -  one of the grand old names of press cuttings), is being bought and merged with Vocus, also US based  but a growing presence in the UK. Added to the mix, Gorkana (formerly Durrants) the UKs largest player, is for sale.  So it’s a good time for the money men. What does it mean for the clients?

The NLA view is that UK clients have been fortunate to have a vibrant and competitive media monitoring industry, with more suppliers and choice than in many other markets. An environment that encourages investment sustains that choice, as does a clear and simple copyright structure. The fact that MMOs can start a business in the UK with an NLA licence and the NLA eClips service has encouraged new entrants, some of which have grown to become major players. It is notable that countries where copyright is weakest have the poorest services for PR users, since without remuneration, publishers aren’t in a position to stump up multi-million pound investment in databases for MMO’s. But why would you invest when there is uncertainty over rights? Too much concentration of supply would be a concern, but, as with a fair number of Karl Marx’s predictions, we are some way from that.

So we think clients should welcome change, and the energy and investment that a new generation of owners will bring.  Bring it on. 

Playing copyright games

Earlier this month at the IP enforcement summit UK Music CEO Jo Dipple urged rights holders to do more to educate young people about copyright.

However often those young people, whether they be listening to music or reading a magazine online, are not all that keen to learn about a complex and hard to access subject.

Which is why we thought UK Music’s solution is brilliant.  They developed a mobile app and game ‘Music Inc’ which aims to both entertain young people and educate them about copyright and licensing within the music industry.   Launched jointly with the Government it helps explain the real effect piracy has on artists.  It has already been downloaded by 100,000 users – well beyond the normal audience of copyright enthusiasts!

Magazine and newspaper publishers often face similar difficulties in articulating the impact of piracy to an audience unaware frameworks are there to protect creators.  The internet has made it so easy to wholesale lift and copy content with little thought to the painstaking research, experience and effort brought to bear by the journalist who write it.

So hats off to Jo and UK Music for managing to illustrate this difficult issue in a visually engaging way.   We hope it has the intended effect.

Journalism diversity fund recipients win coveted places on BBC journalism training scheme

Two Journalism Diversity Fund recipients have fought off fierce competition from over 4,500 applicants to win two of just fourteen places on the prestigious BBC Journalism Trainee Scheme.

Sophie Mei Lan Slack, who completed a PgDip in journalism at University of Salford, and Megan Bramall, who studied on a fast-track course at News Associates, Manchester, will join the year-long paid training scheme in September.

Full details can be found on the Journalism Diversity Fund website.

NLA vs Meltwater: CJEU issue ‘temporary copying’ decision

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today announced its opinion on the “temporary copying” exception in UK copyright law.

As we explained previously on this blog all other issues decided in the NLA’s favour remain unaffected.  The result of the case has no implications for the licences NLA media access issues for the present web-monitoring services operated by Meltwater and other media monitoring agencies; although it may in time lead service providers to create new services which would operate under a different licensing regime.

The net economic effect of this judgment for newspaper and magazine publishers should be neutral: end user clients who pay for their current monitoring service still require a licence for the content they receive.  

We are pleased that throughout these court cases, which began in the High Court in 2010, the principle that publishers should be fairly remunerated for use of their copyrighted content has been upheld.

The court cases have been critical in confirming copyright principles. Now that these principles have been established NLA will continue to work closely with Meltwater to supply them and their clients with appropriate licences for their use of publisher content.  Negotiated commercial solutions which recognise and meet the needs of all parties are the way forward.

David Pugh

Managing Director, NLA media access

About NLA media access

NLA media access is a publisher owned organisation that protects the publishing industry's copyright through collective licensing.   NLA represents the rights of 1,400 national, regional and foreign newspapers, over 1000 magazines and 1,100 + websites.

NLA media access grants permission to organisations to copy from an extensive range of newspapers, magazines and websites and provides database services to both media monitoring agencies and publishers. In 2013 NLA media access paid over £26m in royalties to represented publishers.

For more information:

Contact NLA Managing Director David Pugh, dpugh@nla.co.uk or call 0207 332 9351. 

You can also contact our media adviser Andrew May Andrew.May@theopen-road.com  or call 020 3542 1119

Further Information on NLA

Annual Report 2013

Background on the NLA V Meltwater legal case