The Prime Minister’s Intellectual Property Adviser has hit back at reports that he proposed the introduction of prison sentences for “minor [copyright] infringements by young people” at a debate in Parliament last week.
Mike Weatherley MP spoke at the second reading of the Intellectual Property Bill, at which he outlined his proposal for tackling copyright infringement, which includes education, changing industry models and voluntary agreements.
However, he has since accused Helen Goodman MP - Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport – of “skewing” his argument and “setting the debate back by creating a misleading headline.”
“There are many steps to be taken before we consider enforcement,” he explained, speaking to Music Week. “It was hugely disappointing that Helen Goodman MP chose to misrepresent my views and also to use the debate to be party political which no other speaker did.
“I did intervene on her to put the record straight in that I was talking about commercial persistent offenders - those that make thousands off of other persons creative output who have scant regard to the fact they are stealing. But she chose to try and skew this towards minor infringements by younger persons, setting the debate back by creating a misleading headline.”
Weatherley’s speech detailed the proposals Government has already taken to tackle intellectual property law enforcement, including: the introduction of criminal penalties for deliberately copying UK registered designs, extending the opinion services delivered by the Intellectual Property Office to include registered designs and the implementation of the Unitary Patent Court Agreement.
Among the “additional measures that would be beneficial to incorporate directly into the Bill” Weatherley suggested the creation of IP enforcement legislation “with real teeth”. Those measure are as follows:
- Increasing the maximum penalty for digital copyright theft from two years to ten years
- Stopping advertising and payment facilities on web-sites hosting illegal content
- Making the ISPs and search engines have accountability when criminality is known
- Withdrawing internet ‘rights’ from lawbreakers, along with fines and, as a last resort, imposing custodial sentences
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