As technology marches on, can the copyright system keep pace with an increasingly digital world?

"Copyright law affects our every day lives whether through the music we listen to, the films we watch and the books we read. It underpins the success of a variety of culturally important and economically successful sectors of UK industry such as music, film, computer games and sport…In an increasingly digital world, we need to be sure that our copyright system keeps up with the times and works effectively."

Lord Triesman, the UK's Minister for Intellectual Property

True to his word, the Minister recently launched a consultation to determine if British copyright laws are fit for the digital age. He said, "This consultation is part of a package of measures which is designed to do just that. It explores where the boundaries lie between strong protection for right holders and appropriate levels of access for users. A system valued by right holders and respected by users is critical to the success of UK creativity."

The consultation follows the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property which recommended that aspects of the intellectual property system should be reformed to ensure the UK's copyright laws remains globally competitive in a rapidly changing, digital world. Proposals include greater freedom for consumers to legally transfer music or films between, for example, CDs and an MP3 player – so-called 'format-shifting'. Other proposals include changes to enable schools and universities to make the most of digital technologies and facilitate distance learning.

The recommendations considered in this consultation paper include copyright law changes that will:

·         Enable schools and universities to maximize digital technologies and facilitate distance learning;

·         Allow libraries and archives to use technology to preserve valuable material before it deteriorates or the format it is stored on becomes obsolete;

·         Introduce a format shifting exception to allow consumers to copy legitimately purchased content to another format, for example CD to MP3, in a manner that does not damage the interests of copyright owners; and

·         Provide a new exception for parody.

Expanding exceptions for educational use would reflect the greater use of interactive whiteboards in the classroom and facilitate distance and online learning by enabling extracts from books, plays and copies of broadcasts to be distributed digitally.

Changes for libraries would allow the copying of sound recordings, films and broadcasts for preservation purposes and to format shift works stored on obsolete or unstable media. UK-IPO chief executive Ian Fletcher said: "We should not underestimate the importance of making sure that we draw the line between access and protection in the right place..."

Implications for content users and rights holders. These new proposals, if they come to pass, will change the landscape of copying music from the web. According to an article in The Guardian, it's good news for consumers. iPod users will no longer be breaking the law whenever they fill up their iPod. Those with digital music players will be able to transfer music from the computer to a digital player or copy a CD – and do it all legally. Music lovers will now be able to copy tracks from CDs for private use freely and without guilt.

For composers and songwriters, the benefits are less clear. British Music Rights, which represents music rights holders, said any changes to the law must be "tightly drawn." While a law that has proven to be impractical and unworkable needs to be improved, it should not come at the expense of a recording industry that has suffered mightily from digital piracy.

Technology as the problem. Does technology encourage the sharing of copyrighted material illegally? There are many ways people can download copyrighted material illegally and a prime example is P2P file sharing. A peer-to-peer (or "P2P) computer network uses diverse connectivity between participants in a network and the cumulative bandwidth of network participants rather than conventional centralized resources where a relatively low number of servers provide the core value to a service or application. Peer-to-peer networks, typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections, are useful for many purposes. One of them is sharing content files containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format.

It goes without saying that a peer-to-peer file sharing model is such that most people who engage in file-sharing are also downloading files that other users share. An advantage of p2p networks is that all clients provide resources such as bandwidth, storage space, and computing power. So, as more people use the resources, more resources are available making bottlenecking less of a problem. p2p file sharing networks are often used to share copyrighted material ‘illegally’.

Can copyright be applied in this scenario? Copyright law, which covers only the form or expression in which an idea has been manifested and not the idea itself, is also related to ownership and control over how a piece of work is disseminated to others. In this regard, copyright is not forever and can be held only for a certain period of time before it becomes public domain.

Technology as the solution. Today, publishers and copyright holders control access to and use of digital works not just through copyright law, but through Digital Rights Management (DRM). This refers to the use of measures to control copyrightable artistic content, as well as the enforcement of additional restrictions at the discretion of the content’s publisher (which is not necessarily the copyright holder). To some extent, DRM overlaps with copy protection, but DRM is usually applied to creative media (music, films, etc.) whereas copy protection typically refers to software.

Various companies have their own versions of DRM. Apple's is called FairPlay. Its use in Apple's iTune products means iTune is not interoperable and does not allow information exchange between two or more systems (the whole point of DRM).

The use of digital rights management has been controversial. Advocates contend that it is necessary for copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work and illegal profiting by digital pirates. Opponents, such as the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, say that copyright holders are attempting to restrict use of copyrighted material in ways not included in the statutory, common law, or Constitutional grant of exclusive commercial use to them.

There are other emerging technological solutions, too, such as filters, metadata, automatic takedowns and watermarking. How these will work is anybody's guess.

So is there a middle ground to this controversy? Perhaps the UK's latest consultation on the future of copyright in the digital age will provide an answer. Most creators believe copyright should distinguish between the use of copyrighted material in commercial works (bad) and its use for school art or fun (not so bad). But with the continuing march of technology, who knows if your video copy will reach only your friends – or a wider Internet audience?