MPs call for better labelling of digital content

Posted on 5 Jun 2006 at 11:13

MPs have called for new labelling regulations for digital content, so that consumers know exactly what they can and cannot do with their downloads.

The recommendation comes in the All Parliamentary Internet Group's (APIG) report on copy protection (DRM) systems, which is published today.

The report also calls for an inquiry into digital music pricing and warns makers of DRM systems to learn from the experience of Sony BMG in the US and avoid DRM technologies that install hidden, virus-like files on users' computers. As a result of civil action, Sony was forced to replace CDs and compensate customers with free music downloads. In the UK, the report warns, they risk the prospect of criminal prosecution.

APIG has called on the Office of Fair Trading to quickly introduce labelling that explains exactly how digital content can be used and re-used, and the implications for the consumer if they attempt to break copy-protection systems. They have not, however, called for the practice to be made explicitly illegal, as it is in the US.

Labels should also explain what rights the consumer has if the content-provider goes out of business or the DRM system or the devices for playing the content become obsolete.

The report says that the Department of Trade and Industry should examine why music downloads in the UK are 'significantly' more expensive than in mainland Europe.

'This is somewhat at odds with the notion of the [European] "single market",' the report says.

APIG took representations from the content industries as well as consumer groups.

Suw Charman, director of the Open Rights Group which campaigns for consumers' digital rights, welcomed the report's recommendations but said that it should have called for the protection of existing legal provisions that have been eroded by DRM, such as the right to use small parts copyrighted material for reviews or critiques.

'That's an exemption thwarted by DRM systems,' she said. 'The technologies are extending beyond the law they are supposed to uphold.'

However the report has failed to address the biggest issue surrounding the transition from physical to digital content. DRM changes content that consumers once bought into content they rent.

'We think people rightly feel that once they buy something, it stays bought,' Charman said.

An APIG spokesperson said that it was awaiting responses from content providers. The group hopes that the report will prompt government interest in digital content and DRM and that its findings will be taken into account by the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has asked Andrew Gowers, a former editor of the Financial Times, to chair a review of intellectual property rights. It is scheduled to present its findings in the autumn.

Author: Simon Aughton