Along with Chairman Pete Wishart MP and Treasurer Jim Daly MP, Eddy Leviten of the Alliance for Intellectual Property and others from the industry and Parliament, I recently visited Brussels to discuss Commission proposals for the Digital Single Market which could have implications for copyright and the ability of the creative industries to finance the production in particular of film and AV product, such a strong element of Britain’s creative industries.

We came away somewhat reassured that the key objective for the Commission is portability of content rather than reform of copyright but there are slightly different messages coming from different directions both about objectives and process so time will tell.

We can expect a communication from DG Connect on overall strategy for different elements such as cross border access, so called geo-blocking, harmonisation of exceptions online intermediaries and follow the money/enforcement after the New Year and proposals on portability separately in the same timescale.

The APPG on IP will be publishing a full report on the visit and our conclusions shortly

"We came away somewhat reassured that the key objective for the Commission is portability of content rather than reform of copyright..."

— Lord Clement-Jones

Intellectual Property Meeting