The Gower report on IP struck Geeklawyer as a very bal­anced and intel­lec­tu­ally rigourous review. He was clearly at pains to con­sider all sides to the increas­ingly polit­i­cal nature of IP rights.

The thing that stuck out for Geeklawyer in all of this was that Gower is propos­ing that a defence to infringe­ment of copy­right should be rein­tro­duced: par­ody car­i­ca­ture & pas­tiche. Geeklawyer says ‘rein­tro­duced’ because in the dim dis­tant past it was a defence until some arse­hat of a judge decided that it wasn’t and that what mat­tered was the ques­tion of whether there was ‘sub­stan­tial tak­ing’.

While it is prob­a­bly a bit tricky start­ing to assess argu­ments for and against infringe­ment based on intent, and it might set off an entire line of unwel­come sub­jec­tivism in other areas too, par­ody is really a species of free speech that will not unfairly dam­age the essen­tial inter­ests of the copy­right holder.

Geeklawyer has often said we need a more relaxed US style ‘fair use’ defence. Which is a bit rich com­ing from some­one who mocks UK politi­cians for suck­ing up to, and imi­tat­ing, all things American.

Some­times, how­ever, one just has to do the right thing.