§ Mr. Fisherasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) when Her Majesty's Government intend to ratify the Paris text of the Berne convention;
(2) if he will introduce legislation to incorporate into United Kingdom law the provisions of article 9 of the Paris text of the Berne convention, in so far as it relates to copyright protection for visual artists and photographers; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PattieThe requirements of article 9 of the Paris text of the Berne convention, so far as they relate to visual artists and photographers, are met by section 3 of the Copyright Act 1956. There are, however, a number of changes which will need to be made to other parts of our law before the Government can ratify the Paris text. The Government intend to make these changes as part of the general reform of copyright law proposed in the White Paper "Intellectual Property and Innovation", Cmnd. 9712. The necessary legislation will be introducd as soon as the parliamentary timetable permits and ratification of the Paris text will follow.