UK Intellectual Property Office Rejects

Freedom of Information Request

On the 8th of November one of our members, Gordon Harrison, submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The request was for a complete list of the organisations that made submissions for the report 'The Way Ahead; A Strategy for Copyright in the Digital Age', together with a copy of each submission. The IPO had already published some of the submissions but according to their website a number of submissions were made in confidence. Gordon asked that they be made public under the the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

UK Digital Economy Bill Progress

at 3 December 2009

This UK parliament link displays an extremely helpful bill progress chart so that you can see what stage the Digital Economy Bill is at, and what is to happen next.

From this you can see that the next step is the House of Lords committee stage starting on 6 January 2010. The chart goes on to detail all the other stages through which the bill must pass if it is to become law.

Note that it should be possible for every photographer in the UK to make a submission to the bill committee as per the extract below from the Digital Economy Bill website link referred to above.

Get involved: guidance on written submissions

Do you have expertise or a special interest in matters contained within a Government Bill? Submit your views to the Commons Public Bill Committee.

I’m sure our UK photographic associations will make submissions to committee but please strengthen the case they submit by making your own submission.  Send a copy of your submission to your MP as well so that they have the information they need to defend our interests when the bill reaches the House of Commons.

It would be very helpful to all of us if the photographic associations gave their members a lead on identifying the specific concerns that should be addressed by the committee and our MP’s.

In the meantime here are some issues to consider, more will be added later -

1. The UK government has made no committment to introduce IP education to arts classes in primary and secondary education. The fact that the public have no understanding of copyright, its purpose and value is a failure by successive UK governments to address this issue. We now have a culture amongst the young that everything on the internet should be free, and who can blame for believing this?

2. The UK government has made no provision to address the issue of metadata stripping creating untold numbers of orphan images, yet it is considering an orphans works act. The law should make the stripping of copyright metadata an infringement offence with no if's and buts.

3. The UK goverment has not addressed the issues of moral rights. In the House of Lords debate one speaker said that moral rights should be unwaivable, enforceable, and that the law should be changed to ensure that copyright metadata is not stripped out of images.

There are other issues that should be added to this list, write to us using our contact form and tell us what you think. We will keep this information up to date with issues that need to be addressed by the digital economy bill and you can use this information as a basis for your submission to the House of Lords committee and to submit a copy to your MP.If you don't know who your MP is use this link.

The following links give further current information.

• The full transcript of the debate in the House of Lords on 2nd December 2009
• Video of the House of Lords debate
  
• House of Lords Blog on the Bill - Lords of the Blog written by Lord Norton
• Comment on the Bill following the Lords debate by British Journal of Photography, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Updiggers Blogspot, Guardian
• The full content of the The Digital Economy Bill 
• Fact sheets concerning this bill.

Digital Economy Bill Progress

at 26 November 2009

This UK parliament link displays an extremely helpful bill progress chart so that you can see what stage the Digital Economy Bill is at, and what is to happen next.

From this you can see that the next step is the second reading on the 2nd Dec 09 in the House of Lords - this will be a general debate on all aspects of the bill.  Following this debate it will enter the House of Lords committee stage and the chart goes on to detail all the other stages through which the bill must pass if it is to become law.

Note that it should be possible for every photographer in the UK to make a submission to the bill committee as per the extract below from the Digital Economy Bill website link referred to above.

Get involved: guidance on written submissions

Do you have expertise or a special interest in matters contained within a Government Bill? Submit your views to the Commons Public Bill Committee.

I’m sure our UK photographic associations will make submissions to committee but why not strengthen the case they submit by making your own submission?  Send a copy of your submission to your MP as well so that they have the info to defend our interests when the bill reaches the House of Commons.

It would be very helpful to all of us if the photographic associations gave their members a lead on identifying the specific concerns that should be addressed by the committee and our MP’s.

The following links give further information, the full content of the The Digital Economy Bill and there is also a series of fact sheets concerning this bill.

IPG/Terry O'Neill Award Shortlist & Winners

The third Independent Photographers Terry O’Neill Award had an outstanding response of exceptional standard and from all the far reaches of the globe, having opened its doors to international entries for the first time. The Award is an open competition that sees entries in terms of ‘the series’ from all genres, and from the broad canvas that makes up the contemporary photographic industry.

The shortlist and winners are now announced for the IPG/Terry O'Neill Award, and the catalogue is now on-line at the Independent Photographers Gallery website.

The winners of this year contest were -

• First;     Salvatore Esposito; Drug & Micro-Criminality in Naples

• Second; Andrew McConnell; Congo

• Third;   Brad Moore; Suburban Californian Cities

The following photographers were shortlisted; Gina Brocker, Zak Waters, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Jeffris Elliot, Elliot Wilcox, Zander Olsen, Kate Westaway.

The exhibition of the winning and shortlisted work is currently on at IPG until the 3rd of October 2009.

New Bill of Rights Guides

Two new guides have been published to help photo competition organisers draft terms and conditions for their competitions. The advice given is to ensure that the terms and conditions are fair to entrants, respect photographers rights, and comply with the Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions.

Sample terms and conditions are provided along with advice to organisers about adapting them to suit their own competition. The guides also focus on the need for the organiser to have terms and conditions that protect them from potential legal action when they publish entrants images.

The first guide, entitled Guide to Rights & Licensing, is intended as an introduction to rights and licensing in general, but with emphasis on how these concepts apply to photo competitions. It can be read by anyone, an organiser, a photographer, or any member of the public. We expect anyone who reads this brief guide to gain an understanding that their creativity has value.

The second guide, Organisers Guide to the Bill of Rights, is written specifically for organisers as an aid to creating appropriate terms and conditions for their photography contests.

We hope both guides prove helpful but if anyone feels they can be improved we will be glad to hear from them.