The creative industries – and the technology companies that carry their content – may share a common customer, but little else. Where it comes to copyright law, their differences have often flared into open war. Technology companies dream of rewriting copyright law to free up content; and content creators search for ways to employ technology in their own favor to prevent piracy. As Non-Executive Chairman of The Copyright Hub Ltd., Richard Hooper is calling for a truce in the copyright wars and has suggestions for forging a lasting peace.
At CCC’s US headquarters in Danvers, Massachusetts, Richard Hooper (second from right) stands with (from left) Michael Healy, CCC’s Executive Director, International Relations; Tracey Armstrong, CCC’s CEO; and his wife, the writer Meredith Hooper.
“It’s a very big issue. The anti-copyright forces are strong, the pro-copyright forces are strong. Neither side is giving too much space to the other, but I think there is a recognition that the war is, in the end, unproductive,” Hooper tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “It is using up resources that could be better spent elsewhere, and I think it is not actually helping the end consumer get what they want, which is quality content.”
Richard Hooper has devoted his career to the converging worlds of media, communications and technology. In 2011, the British government asked Richard to review the digital copyright exchange idea that came out of the highly-regarded Hargreaves Review. This became a major project looking at ways of streamlining copyright licensing processes and organizations, which led to the creation of the Copyright Hub, based in London. In July 2013, he spoke about the launch of the Copyright Hub with CCC’s Beyond the Book.
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