Does the Government think copyright is still "appropriate"?

I understand that a paragraph of Labour's general election manifesto continues to cause intrigue (and some concern) among rights holders and other interested groups.  Chapter 8 of the manifesto stated:

"We will modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.  We will use our presidency of the EU to look at how to ensure content creators can protect their innovations in a digital age.  Piracy is a growing threat and we will work with industry to protect against it."

Most notable is the implication that the current form of copyright (and other IP) is no longer "appropriate" in the "digital" age, at least not without modernisation.  At the time, The Register called this "ominous" and said "we fear they may disagree with us on what is 'appropriate'". The theme was repeated in Labour's presentation to businesses (though somewhat toned down - note the removal of "appropriate") when Labour pledged to:

"Modernise copyright and intellectual property regimes, so that in a digital age, creators, entrepreneurs and creative industries can invest in ideas and talent knowing that they will get a proper reward for their investment."

The Government's manifesto pledge was too vague to tell exactly what modernisations they have in mind, but we might speculate based on common criticisms of current copyright laws.

Comments

[Chris Lightfoot]

I think you've misparsed this. "Modernise" is almost certainly code for "introduce yet more dodgy protections for DRM, term extensions, unlimited patentability, etc. to keep on good terms with our buddies in the content industry", rather than anything sensible like looking at what'd be economically efficient. You needn't worry -- it'll doubtless be very profitable for IP lawyers. Incredibly counterproductive for everybody else, of course, but since nobody seems to care that the current régime is idiotic I don't expect that anything will be done about it in our lifetimes.

Anybody who can in seriousness come out with,

"Piracy is a growing threat and we will work with industry to protect against it."

shows pretty strong signs of Just Not Understanding.