Copyright needs to evolve to current technological realities or risk becoming irrelevant, Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), has said. There was no 'single magical answer' to the development of a successful policy response to the challenges facing copyright in the digital age, he further said. What was required was a combination of law, infrastructure, cultural change, institutional collaboration and better business models. Gurry was speaking at a conference hosted by the Faculty of Law of Australia's Queensland University of Technology (QUT) on the future of copyright.
According to him, the central question facing the evolution of copyright policy is how to maintain a balance between the availability of cultural works at affordable prices while assuring a dignified economic existence for creators and performers. Digital technology was having a radical impact on those balances, he pointed out. Rather than resist it, we need to accept the inevitability of technological change and to seek an intelligent engagement with it.
There are three main principles that should guide the development of a successful policy response, Gurry stated. The first is neutrality to technology and to the business models developed in response to technology; the second principle is comprehensiveness and coherence in the policy response; and the third is the need for more simplicity in copyright.
Gurry further said copyright should be about promoting cultural dynamism, not preserving or promoting vested business interests. He recognised the need for a global infrastructure that permits simple, global licensing, one that makes the task of licensing cultural works legally on the Internet as easy as it is to obtain such works there illegally. Further, he stated that copyright was complicated and complex, reflecting the successive waves of technological development in the media of creative expression from printing through to digital technology, and the business responses to those different media. He warned about the risk of losing audience and public support if understanding of the system was not made more accessible.
Search for more Copyrights related information
To access our daily STM news feed through your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphones, please visit www.myscoope.com for a mobile friendly reading experience.
