As part of their submission to the Digital Britain review, the IPA has outlined their support for Pact that all UK publicly funded digital content procured from government, local government, NGOs and other public bodies should be commissioned under a Digital Rights Framework.

Chief executive for Pact, John McVay said: “Currently, more than £300m is spent by the government on new media content, the IP of which is retained and hardly ever used. Just as the Terms of Trade transformed the TV external supply sector by enabling Indies to use their rights to stimulate and grow the sector, we believe an similar framework for Digital Britain would underpin the UK as a world-leading content hub.”

Marina Palomba, IPA Legal Director said: “The IPA supports Pact in its response to the Digital Britain Review to establish a rights framework which recognises the ownership of intellectual property by the creator and accords greater flexibility and exploitation rights to such creators so as to prevent warehousing and encouraging rather than suppressing innovation. By recognising the value in works created by IPA members and agreeing to more flexible ownership rights, public procurement bodies can help achieve greater value to the public by exploitation of the rights in other areas while also delivering commercial value to the creator.”

A successful precedent of this concept already exists in the new media rights framework adopted by bbc.co.uk. Pact’s submission argues that a similar framework could be applied wherever services that commission UK content benefit from public support, including the Public Service Broadcasters and new media content for the public sector. This would prevent warehousing of content, foster innovation and give British audiences greater access to higher quality content.

To see Pact’s submission to Digital Britain click here