Photographers across the UK are concerned that a further debate over the Digital Economy Bill will not remove possible threats to photography copyright.

The Bill was debated on 8 February in the House of Lords, bringing hope that subsection 116B of the bill would be thrown out. However, news soon emerged that the subsection, which allows the right to copy to be transferred from one person to another, without the owner’s consent, remained intact.

Arguing in favour of throwing out the amendments to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, was Lord Clement-Jones. The Lord, along with several other supporters penned some amendments to the Bill, which lessened its control over copyright. However, the government failed to support the changes during the debates.

Today, further debates are to take place in order to discuss further amendments brought in by Lord Mandelson on 24 February. They clarify the definition of an orphan work, helping to avoid copyright being abused on a non-orphan work.

However, photographers’ organisations claim the changes still fail to address the threat to photographers’ rights. The Associations of Photographers is now calling upon its members to express their concerns to their local representatives in the House of Commons.

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