News story: IPO helps the cultural sector understand intellectual property

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published a report on Digital Culture. The report, Culture is Digital, follows a Digital Culture project launched in April 2017 by the Secretary of State for DCMS, Matt Hancock with the #CultureisDigital online consultation.

That project focused on three areas:

• driving audience engagement
• unleashing the creative potential of technology in the cultural sector
• boosting the capability of cultural organisations

The capability area identified that there are intellectual property (IP) skills gaps in the cultural sector when creating digital content such as digital art installations in galleries or dance performances streamed online.

This lack of expertise limits the content makers’ ability to create and exploit digital content. To help address these gaps, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) have included two commitments in the new report:

• the IPO will work with the British Library’s Business and Intellectual Property Centres (BIPCs) and representatives from the cultural sector to develop guidance and training. This will help cultural organisations better understand the IP framework and its relevance to them.

• the space helps artists and organisations make great art and reach new audiences digitally. It will lead work with cultural organisations, cultural rights holders and seek guidance from the IPO to develop a Cultural Digital Rights Code of Practice

This work should improve access to cultural content by maintaining a balance of intellectual property protection and digital innovation.