Crown Copyright Regulation in the UK - Is the Debate Still Alive?

Having been an observer of public policy towards Crown copyrightfor a number of years now it is interesting to see just howfar government has moved over the past decade in its stanceon the issue. What began as a fairly entrenched viewpoint thatCrown copyright was a necessary instrument of control over theprocess of official publication, seems now to have moved forwardto a position that permits more radical thinking about the policy.Originally the enforcement of Crown copyright was seen as ameans of maintaining control over the publication of the material,with a licensing policy for re-use and added-value exploitationby the private sector publishing industry. The private sectoritself had long argued that the policy diminished prospectsfor the proper exploitation of official information. This itargued had had a detrimental effect, both for the industry itselfand the degree to which the information might be used for thebenefit of the national economy. Government began to listento these arguments but HM Treasury consistently maintained theneed for departments and agencies to recover costs and in somecases obtain profits from the distribution of official information.It was seen very much as a resource belonging to cost centresthat should be exploited. Since the fall of the former ConservativeGovernment it has become clear that those engaged in this debateare no longer as committed to these trenchant positions as theyonce were. Instead it would seem that a more open debate isunderway within a broader reassessment of the nature, organizationand functioning of the public services. This article exploresthe progress in that debate and assesses where the policy nowstands.