A controversial UK study, commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron, has found that lobbying by rights holders is holding too much influence over politics and the formation of new copyright laws.
In a review led by Professor Ian Hargreaves, the conclusion is not one that will make the likes of the RIAA and MPAA, and their British cohorts, happy.
The Digital Opportunity review looked at how copyright law has been formed, and attacked rights holders for "an extraordinary degree" of lobbying. "On copyright issues, lobbying on behalf of rights owners has been more persuasive to Ministers than economic impact assessments," the report added.
Professor Hargreaves' recommendation is to set up a Digital Copyright Exchange, which would allow transactions involving licenses to works to proceed faster and more cheaply than they do now. If such an exchange is set up, the review found that it could have a tremendous benefit to the economy.
UK Business Secretary Vince Cable accepted the report's findings.
You can read the Digital Opportunity review here:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview-finalreport.pdf
Do you think that rights holders have spent too much time and resources lobbying politicians? Post your opinion in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=94871
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