Tech community urges Hargreaves report adoption

The Coalition for the Digital Economy calls on the Government to adopt recommendations from the Hargreaves IP report.

By Tom Brewster, 4 Jul 2011 at 17:01

The Silicon Roundabout tech community has written to the Government urging implementation of the Hargreaves report and its recommended reforms of UK intellectual property (IP) laws.

The Hargreaves copyright report received strong backing in May, after it suggested revising current legislation on areas such as CD ripping. It also recommended relaxing rules on parodies and re-workings of content.

The Coalition for the Digital Economy (Coadec), which represents companies within the Silicon Roundabout community, wrote to the Prime Minister calling on the Government to take action.

“Our organisations believe that the Hargreaves report represents a watershed for this country's digital economy,” the letter read.

“The report recognises—as many digital businesses and entrepreneurs have known for a long time—that the nation’s intellectual property laws, and in particular copyright law, must adapt to business, social and technological change.”

The group said the recommendations can be implemented by an Act of Parliament or statutory instrument. The Government should move "as soon as possible", Coadec said.

“If the Government fails to implement these reforms, it will show Silicon Roundabout that all their supposed support has been little more than hype, and that they won't even take the simplest of concrete measures to help enable a world-class digital economy in Britain,” added Jeff Lynn, chairman of Coadec.

“Given the importance of facilitating economic growth in this climate and the strong potential for digital businesses to do just that, such neglect would be tragic and really rather odd.”