British Music Rights (BMR) today welcomed the publication of the Gowers Report, which recognised intellectual property as the cornerstone of a 21st century economy in which the key drivers of growth are creativity and innovation.

The report on intellectual property (IP), compiled by former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers at the request of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was released today and said: ‘Against the backdrop of the increasing importance of ideas, IP rights, which protect their value, are more vital than ever.’

Emma Pike, Chief Executive of BMR, the organisation that represents writers and publishers of music in the UK, said: ‘The fact this report has been put out demonstrates a real desire within Government to take copyright seriously. We would have liked to see Gowers go further still, in relation to the real challenges that digital technology present.

‘A good place to start would be to give rights owners new tools to force peer-to-peer operators to go legitimate or close down. We look forward to working with the Government to build on these recommendations in the months and years ahead,’ Pike added.

The report also endorses BMR’s ongoing calls for copyright, as the currency of the creative economy, to be better understood – particularly by the next generation of creative entrepreneurs – and champions the Young Enterprise QuickStart Music Programme, supported by BMR, as a model of best practice.

Elsewhere in the report, Gowers recommended that ‘format shifting’ – i.e. copying legitimately purchased CDs onto digital music players for personal use - be legalised for works published after 2008, without compensation for rights holders. Yet this is a distraction from the core issue of copyright infringement and risks being perceived as a green light for widespread illegal copying.

Among other changes recommended by the Gowers team that BMR welcome, are increasing the powers of Trading Standards to make sure they can clamp down on pirate material in hard copy form, by working with the police and other agencies to make ‘test-purchases’ and then enforce stiffer penalties against those trading in counterfeit goods.

The governance structure for IP, through the creation of the Strategic Advisory Board for IP policy (SABIP) and the reforming of the Patent Office in a way that separates its policy and delivery functions, is also welcome.

ENDS
For further information please contact British Music Rights on 020 7306 4446 or email: britishmusic@bmr.org.

Notes to Editors

About the Gowers Review

• In December 2005, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that he had asked Andrew Gowers to lead a review into the UK’s intellectual property framework. The findings of the review, the Gowers Report, was published today.

About British Music Rights

• British Music Rights (BMR) was established in 1996 to speak on behalf of the UK’s songwriting, composing and music publishing community. BMR comprises four member organisations: the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), the Music Publishers Association (MPA) and the Performing Right Society (PRS).
• BMR acts as a single consensus voice for more than 50,000 composers, songwriters, music publishers, and their UK collecting societies. The organisation made representations to the Gowers review team at the Treasury earlier in the year and have been proactive in putting the views of music creators where Gowers has been debated.
• QuickStart Music is a programme that enables young people to set up and run their own real music enterprises in schools. Through a combination of theory and practical experience, the 10-week programme, for students aged 14 to 16, helps young entrepreneurs to plan, finance and operate their own music businesses within their school.