Gowers up for review again.

The music industry is bracing itself for another round of Gowers Review consultations, which will give it the opportunity to finally get to grips with the tricky old chestnut of format shifting.

This week the UK Intellectual Property Office is proposing to open a two-month consultation on six of the 54 recommendations from the 2006 Gowers Review relating to the flexibility and balance of the intellectual property system.

The one recommendation - number eight on the list - that will get most juices flowing in the industry is the suggestion that a limited private copying exception for format shifting should be introduced.

There is currently no provision in UK law for private copying, which means that technically consumers uploading their copy of Leona Lewis's Spirit to their iTunes folder on a PC are breaking the law.

However, the public is largely ignorant - and unconcerned - that they are breaking UK laws and were given a get out of jail card in June 2006 when the BPI revealed that it would not pursue them if they copied their CDs for their own private use.

In France and Germany a private copying exception exists, but levies are exacted on hardware and blank media. Andrew Gowers was not keen on levies because he suggested they do not reflect the number of times a device is used or accurately compensate rights holders.

The industry is ...