MPs raise hopes for Digital Copyright Exchange

However, in comments made last week by BIS minister John Hayes and others, in what was the first major debate by MPs on the May report on IP and Growth, the digital czar role proposed by Professor Ian Hargreaves and his team appeared to have less of a future.

Don Foster, the former Lib Dem spokesman on culture, also believed the cross sectoral Digital Copyright Exchange was one of the key ideas of the May report.

“I accept this is an exciting idea and an opportunity to grow the creative industries,” said Foster, who wields major influence within the DCMS despite not holding down a ministerial position.

However, Foster said he was concerned about the word “exchange” and added that the UK was a “long way from exchange” with the music, film and publishing industries all at different stages of developing codes, information and data.

However, he said the music industry had made some major inroads into developing systems that had some interoperability.

“The music industry is well advanced around pulling together the sort of database that Hargreaves talks about,” he said.

“Commonality is important and interoperability needs to be worked at if different parts of the creative sector are to develop.”

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