ORGANISATIONS: Music industry cools to Digital Rights proposal.

Mixed reaction to Government's Agency plans

By Robert Ashton

THE DIGITAL RIGHTS AGENCY'S ability to gain traction appears to be slipping, with the music industry giving the Government-proposed body a lukewarm reception.

UK Music - alongside individual submissions from the Music Managers Forum and the BPI - handed the Government a brief four-page response to its consultation last week suggesting that "existing structures and mechanisms" are already in place to deal with many of the jobs being assigned to the proposed DRA.

But, with only 14 weeks to respond to the joint Departments for Innovation, Universities and Skills; Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; and Culture Media and Sport paper, the umbrella organisation also asked for further time to make comments.

Although UK Music welcomed the Government's commitment to reducing peer- to-peer filesharing over the next few years and its focus on education, it was less complimentary about some of the many ideas and responsibilities floated for proposed DRA.

For example, the Government departments suggested that the DRA could serve as a voluntary register, to perform rights clearance, deal with orphan works, resolve disputes resolution and work on format shifting.