In the first decade of the 18th century, artists and authors had it rough. For their compositions, they could expect to receive, if they were lucky, a single payment for a completed novel, poem or sheet of music. What happened next was beyond their control. If the acquirer was a shrewd printer, he could make a nice fortune reproducing the work for sale to the enlightened masses. The artist, meanwhile, was forced to toil away in relative squalor on his next great work. Cue the sorrowful violin music.

In those days, one group had control of the market: printing press owners. This imbalance came to an end in 1709 with the Statute of Anne, named after Queen Anne. It granted artists full rights to their works for a period of 21 years or 14 years, depending on when the work was produced. The aim was indeed noble. It was viewed as "an Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned."

The modern era of intellectual property rights was born.

Since Queen Anne’s law, copyright has been extended again and again to newly conceived works of art: first recorded music, then film and now software, in each case granting the author a greater ability to recoup payment for his or her work. But in this age of mash-ups and teenage YouTube auteurs, the wisdom of Queen Anne seems hopelessly in need of a 21st-century upgrade.

This week, the iPod generation secured some support from a notable UK think tank, The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). In its report, the group argues that the UK’s copyright laws are woefully inadequate for the digital age. The group takes aim in particular at one glaring anomaly: the fact that UK consumers cannot make personal copies of the media they purchase – thus,copying your CD collection onto your computer or iPod is a criminal act. It also recommended that DRM controls on digital media should be less stringent and that recorded music copyright should not be extended beyond the current 50 years.

Interestingly, the IPPR picks up on the "Encouragement of Learning" theme in the Statute of Anne to argue against the shortcomings of restrictive intellectual property rules. We live in a "knowledge economy", the report says, in which society will benefit more from the free flow of ideas, a concept that is under threat by cumbersome DRM and copyright restrictions that keep a creative work ghettoised in yesterday’s technology. (No doubt, one of the authors must be a Beatles fan.)

In the words of the IPPR: "The internet offers unprecedented opportunities to share ideas and content. … Knowledge must, therefore, perform the roles of both commodity and social glue, both private property and public domain."

The well-reasoned report represents one of the most influential calls yet to review the current copyright regime, yet it will almost certainly amount to nothing.

Are Britain’s "fair use" rules governing media wacky and anachronistic? Yes, but nobody is being imprisoned or fined because of them. As the woes of the Piracy Party demonstrate, your average person on the street isn’t clamouring for copyright reform. Tax reform? Probably. The troops back home? Definitely. An updated IP treaty? Not likely.

"I don’t think the issues the IPPR are focusing on are highly controversial," predicts Struan Robertson, Senior Associate at the law firm Pinsent Masons, who specialises in digital IP (and writes a column for Times Online). It might cause some symbolic change, but it’s unlikely to place high on the parliamentary agenda,"

If the IPPR has succeeded in anything this week, it is in adding yet another voice to an already cacophonous argument on copyright reform. It may also influence the upcoming Gowers report, due for release in early November, as part of a larger Government review of intellectual property laws in Britain. But all this reform talk is unlikely to make much of a consumer impact for years.

It’s the digital era. We consumers have it rough.

Bernhard Warner, formerly Reuters' internet correspondent in Europe and senior editor for The Industry Standard Europe, writes about technology, the internet and media industries. He can be reached at techscribe@gmail.com

Previous articles by Bernhard Warner can be found here

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