NIPC Law

On 5 Jan 2012 I reported the Richard Hooper had been appointed to carry out a feasibility study on a digital copyright exchange and his call for evidence (see "Copyright: Hooper Calls for Evidence"  ). Richard Hooper has now published his report:  Copyright works: Streamlining copyright licensing for the digital age . In his report, he said that the creative industries had responded constructively to Professor Hargreaves's report and were busy streamlining copyright licensing for the digital age. He expected such streamlining to reinforce the lead enjoyed that the British creative industries already enjoy in the distribution of digitized content. However, more could be done and his main suggestion was "the creation of a not-for-profit, industry led Copyright Hub based in the UK that links interoperably and scalably to the growing national and international network of private and public sector digital copyright exchanges, r...

Olympics association rights and the London Olympics Association rights are often referred to as intellectual property rights but as their purpose is to raise revenue from corporate sponsorship and broadcasting they have rather more in common with the monopolies peddled by James I in his attempt to govern without Parliament.   The sale of such monopolies was bitterly resented and was arguably one of the underlying causes of the Civil War which led eventually to the execution of Charles I in 1649 (the scene of which is depicted in the well-known woodcut above).   It is ironic that the king was put to death at Whitehall Palace, not far from where scantily clad young women have been prancing around a sandpit patting a ball over a net.   Happily, nobody is likely to lose his head nowadays but there is plenty of resentment against the modern equivalent (see Andreas Whittam Smith  "In our race to win the Games, we lost our dignity"  Independent 26 July 2012...