Written evidence submitted by the British Equity Collecting Society Limited (BECS)

Summary

BECS urges the Committee to argue for evidence based links with European Commission work on private copying compensation for performers when considering the Government’s intention to bring forward proposals for a substantial opening up of the UK’s copyright exceptions regime, including a wide non-commercial research exception covering text and data mining, limited private copying exception, parody and library archiving.

Background

The British Equity Collecting Society Ltd (BECS) was set up by Equity (the UK trade union representing professional performers and other creative workers) in 1998.

It is a collecting society that administers performers’ remuneration for their work in films and television programmes due from rental, retransmission and certain other exploitation of such works.

BECS represents actors, singers, dancers and other performers who perform in any way, other than musicians. Since 1998 it has paid out more than £30 million in revenue to performers.

Growth in levels of distribution has been significant over the last 12 years.

BECS therefore welcomed the opportunity to respond to the Call for Evidence by the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth.

BECS would draw the attention of the Committee to its response to the Hargreaves Review Call for Evidence. It has been published at

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview.htm

In its response BECS highlighted the way in which it collects private copying and other statutory revenues due to actors and other performers (other than musicians) when the statutory revenues are recognised and provided for by the laws of the vast majority of EU Member States.

BECS therefore has some reservations about the Government announcement that it agrees with the Review's central thesis that "the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework are likely to be beneficial to the UK, subject to three important factors".

Reservations include the fact that "the three important factors" include adherence with EU and international treaties.

Under these EU and international treaties, most EU Member States have found that copyright levies are the only practical means to provide "fair compensation" to cover private copying.

Therefore BECS would urge the Committee to recognise that careful work is needed to see how the UK can select cases where "the amount of harm to rights holders that would result in "fair compensation" under EU law is minimal, and hence the amount of fair compensation would be zero".

BECS believes that this work must be properly linked with wider review of the private copying issues to be undertaken by the European Commission.

This is vital if the Government seeks to take forward proposals for a substantial opening up of the UK’s copyright exceptions regime, including a wide non-commercial research exception covering text and data mining, limited private copying exception, parody and library archiving.

It is helpful that the Government intends to consult widely on the basis of sound evidence, in taking forward the above proposals. As part of this evidence, details of the payments that have been made to actors and other performers from private copying levies across all EU Member States will be an important indicator of the value that the "fair compensation" provisions provide to the performing community within other EU Member States.

31 August 2011