Graham Jones MP

Copyright

Graham Jones wrote this response to a constituent letter about parody and format shifting reform.

Thank you for copying me in to your email to Vince Cable regarding the UK's copyright law and the use. I believe there needs to be a common sense approach - clearly there is a massive difference between someone using someone's copyrighted material for financial gain, and someone making a parody of something.

There is of course always a grey area and the law needs to always be interpreted, but I completely share your belief that people should not be taken to court over simple parody. I also do not believe that it is beyond the wits of Parliament to write legislation which is able to distinguish between copyright theft and parody.

The Government has clearly let deadlines slide in terms of addressing this issue, I would like to see increased impetus from David Willets and Vince Cable to deal with this.

Thank you once again for copying me into your correspondence - I will absolutely bear your representations in mind if this issue is debated by the Commons in the near future.

Best wishes

Graham