The UK Government has confirmed that changes to copyright law will be implemented from 6 April this year.
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has said that the proposed changes to rules on exceptions to copyright could see firms across the country save over £25 million.
BIS said in a statement: “This is a package of relatively small but important reforms to copyright law that will give users of copyright works new basic rights, while continuing to provide necessary protections for copyright owners.
“One of these measures is copyright exception for archiving and preserving. The existing preservation exception will be updated to apply to all types of media and to museums and galleries, as well as libraries and archives,” the statement added.
Among the changes planned include a new right to copy material that is copyrighted, for private use. Other changes include a qualified right to quote copyright-protected content for purposes other than those that fall into the news reporting or review bracket and an exception to carry out data analysis for non-commercial research.
BIS has confirmed that the aim of the new laws is to simplify the UK’s copyright law regime by taking away “up to 45 pages of unnecessary rules and regulations from the statute book”.
The Government previously announced its commitment to altering UK copyright laws after lending its support to a 2011 report regarding the reforming of the country’s intellectual property law template.