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Hargreaves "flawed", PA tells MPs

14.09.11 | Benedicte Page

The Publishers Association has told MPs that economic analysis contained in the Hargreaves Review was "fundamentally flawed" and that it does not support the review's proposals to weaken copyright with new exceptions.

The trade body has submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, which is taking evidence from a range of bodies affected by the intellectual property review, published in May.

PA chief executive Richard Mollett said despite a number of "sensible" ideas for incremental reform, the review team appeared to have taken "a very unbalanced view of the market" in respect of reforming copyright rules around data and text mining.

He said: "We hope the Select Committee, with its timely inquiry, will take a more considered look at the way that academic publishers are already working with content mining technologies and enabling access to important research.

"We have also pointed out to the committee that at a time when international competitors like the US and China are actually strengthening their copyright regimes it is concerning that the British government is walking off in the opposite direction.

"Hargreaves and the Government talk about having the weakest possible protections for rights holders, but the economic health of one of our most successful export businesses is at stake if British publishers are disadvantaged in this way."

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