As reported by the Newspaper Society: Chairman of the committee John Whittingdale MP said they were “unimpressed by Google's continued failure to stop directing consumers to illegal, copyright infringing material on the flimsy excuse that some of the sites may also host some legal content. The continuing promotion of illegal content through search engines is simply unacceptable, and efforts to stop it have so far been derisory... Copyright infringement is a serious crime that threatens our economic future.”
The Committee think that Hargreaves "is wrong in the benefits his report claims for recommended changes to UK copyright law" and regret that the report "adopts a significantly low standard in relation to the need for objective evidence in determining copyright policy". They are "deeply concerned that there is an underlying agenda driven at least partly by technology companies (Google foremost among them) which, if pursued uncritically, could cause irreversible damage to the creative sector".
Last week the NS and NPA were represented at ENPA's Copyright and Digital Working Groups, which took place in Madrid on 19 September, hosted by the Asociacion de Editores de Diarios Espanoles. Imogen Haddon, chief compliance officer at News UK, chaired the Copyright Group. Imogen will be stepping down after two years in the role, which will now be filled by Sarah Davis, group commercial legal director at The Guardian. We are very grateful to Imogen for her hard work on behalf of the industry at a time of considerable activity on the IP front.
Topics discussed by the Copyright Group in Madrid included: the 'Europeana Newspapers: A Gateway to European Newspapers Online' project, the EU Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property; the EC Proposal on Collective Management of Copyright in the Single Market; the EC copyright consultation ‘Licenses for Europe’; and an EP study on contracts in the creative sector. The Digital Group discussed the EU Competition investigation into Google's activities, the EU Digital Agenda and the EU Media Futures Forum. A presentation was given by Mr Carlos Romero Dupla, deputy director of content in the Information Society (Spanish Ministry of Industry).
