Government delays decision on UK copyright regime changes

The government has decided not to change copyright exhaustion laws for the time being following a consultation which led to a campaign by the industry.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) launched a consultation last summer which considered a weakening of copyright rules used for exporting books around the world. Changing the way these rules, known as copyright exhaustion, work would present “serious dangers for the health of the books industry”, according to groups including the Publishers Association (PA) which set up a Save Our Books campaign to fight the changes.

In its conclusion, announced on 18th January, the IPO said there was "not enough data available to understand the economic impact of any of the alternatives" following its consultation.

The IPO said it "remains committed to exploring the opportunities which might come from a change to the regime", adding that "further development of the policy framework needs to happen before reconsidering the evidence and making a decision on the future exhaustion of IP rights regime".

There is no timeframe for a decision yet, but the government said it would provide a further update to stakeholders and businesses "in due course".

The PA welcomed the IPO’s announcement, but said it remains concerned that a future change has not been ruled out entirely.  

Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of the PA, said: “We are delighted that the government has chosen to maintain the UK’s gold standard copyright regime, which our world-leading creative industries are built on, and that ministers have listened to authors, readers and the wider industry on the risks of any change.  

“The evidence is clear, any weakening of our intellectual property laws would be devastating to UK creators, and we will continue to make this case to government in any future discussions of the matter.   

“I am extremely grateful to our Save Our Books campaign partners, MPs and members of the public who have worked together to make our case to government. I know everyone will be relieved that for the moment they can get back to doing what they do best – putting incredible books into the hands of readers.”  

The Save Our Books campaign had argued that the proposed changes, billed as part of a new government approach to copyright and trade following Brexit, could put around two-thirds of author incomes at risk and see a 25% loss in industry revenue. Because author royalties on export sales are far lower than in the UK market, if authors cannot prevent copies from around the world being sold back into the UK, an export sale risks eroding the corresponding domestic sale, the campaign argued. High street stores could also lose out to the online retail giants, it was claimed.

Barbara Hayes, deputy chief executive, of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) also said she was "encouraged" by the IPO’s decision not to proceed with any changes to the current exhaustion framework for the time being. She said: "The creative sector made clear through the Save Our Books campaign that change would have a significant negative impact on our industry and the authors who work within it.

"We hope that the government will make a clearer commitment to sticking with the UK+ regime in future, so as to protect the book market from the risk of parallel trading that would occur if an international exhaustion framework were to be brought in. A firmer decision would provide writers with a degree of certainty in terms of reducing threats to their income which has already been put in jeopardy by the pandemic.

"We are grateful to the ALCS members who made their views clear by writing to their local MPs during the Save Our Books campaign and we hope that the government has taken into account the real impact any future decision will have on writers who contribute so much economically and culturally to the UK.”

The IPO received 150 responses to the consultation, of which 54 were from the creative industries and included the likes of the Association of Authors’ Agents, Curtis Brown Group and the Society of Authors, alongside large publishers such as PRH and Hachette UK, plus indies including Profile Books and Michael O’Mara. 

In its summary of responses, the IPO said those in the book industry were "significantly" concerned that an international exhaustion regime "could undermine existing contracts or jeopardise the value of licences in certain territories and disrupt publisher release strategies that could lead to different formats competing with each other and consequently a double loss of royalties for creators". This would be due to a reduction in UK sales due to cheaper parallel imports and a lower percentage of the price charged for export editions.

Organisations representing authors also "expressed concern that authors and agents (whose commission income is tied to authors’ earnings) could see significant losses to earnings". Last summer, figures including Kazuo Ishiguro, Bernardine Evaristo and Hilary Mantel were among more than 2,500 authors and illustrators who signed an open letter warning against the proposed changes.

Nicola Solomon, chief executive of the Society of Authors (SoA) said the IPO "made the right choice to hold back on reengineering and weakening the UK copyright regime" and praised the joint efforts of authors, publishers, booksellers and agents to fight the plans as "inspiring". 

She told The Bookseller: "The IPO says there is ‘not enough data available to understand the economic impact of any of the alternatives’, but as Monday’s Nielsen stats show, we have an industry packed full of data that demonstrates the economic benefits of the UK’s current copyright regime. We hope that if and when the government revisits this issue in future, they will look even more closely at the evidence available."

Perminder Mann, c.e.o of Bonnier Books UK, said today’s decision by the IPO was "a great relief" and stressed: "Any weakening of the copyright exhaustion rule would have had an undeniably devastating impact on authors, illustrators and publishers. I’m extremely grateful to the PA for their diligence on the matter and to everyone who helped to support their fantastic Save Our Books campaign.”