The coalition government must implement the Digital Economy Act in order to safeguard intellectual property (IP), the president of the Publishers Association has said....

The coalition government must implement the Digital Economy Act in order to safeguard intellectual property (IP), the president of the Publishers Association has said.

Implementation of the act, which was approved last year, had been held up following a legal challenge by BT and TalkTalk. However, a court ruling last month dismissed their concerns.

Speaking at the Book Industry Conference in London this morning (16th May), Pearson UK president Rod Bristow said as demand increases for digital content, piracy will increase. He said: "It is vital that the [Digital Economy Act] is implemented speedily and effectively to put vital protection mechanisms in place to protect IP."

However, he added the bigger threat to IP than piracy was the threat to copyright itself. He said: "The rise of the internet has led to a view among some people and some technology companies that copyright is just an irritant; that the real value today is not in creating content but in finding it. It's as though creativity is redundant now that everything has been created."

He said the first copyright statute led to "300 years of creativity and progress" and suggested "our society tampers with those rules at its peril".

Bristow said it was vital publishers and booksellers work together to promote diversity in how books are sold. He said: "If we end up with amonolithic channel to market it won't help consumers and it won't help publishers either." He said the trade needs to examine costs in the supply chain and business models but above all ensure both are giving customers what they want.

He said: "With imagination, with vision, with a willingness to take risks and yes, with collaboration we can do that. By combining localism (a great experience for customers both offline and online) with technology I am convinced that many retailers will start to define ever better experiences for customers who visit them."

Blog: The speech in full.

