Intellectual property rule changes were mooted in the wake of Brexit but have been shelved after warnings about how this could hit writers’ incomes
After authors including Kate Mosse and Philip Pullman warned that proposals to change the UK’s copyright laws could be “devastating” for writers, the government has paused its plans.
The Intellectual Property Office launched a consultation last summer into UK copyright after Brexit. Writers and publishers had feared that if the “copyright exhaustion” rule were changed, governing when the control of a rights holder over the distribution of their property expires, it could lead to a flood of cheap international editions of books.