§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Trade what steps are taken to ensure that royalties on tapes and cassettes are not avoided by unofficial copying.
§ Mr. EyreThe Copyright Act 1956 gives the owner of the copyright in tapes and cassettes the right to prevent copying without his consent. Copyright owners are very active in enforcing this right in cases where the source of the unauthorised copies can be traced. There is difficulty in policing the right where copies are made for private use. This problem was considered by the Whitford committee, which has suggested the introduction of a levy on reproduction equipment for the benefit of copyright owners. The Government have reached no conclusion on this, but hope to present a Green Paper on this and the other problems of copyright reform around the end of the year.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Trade what are the figures for the sale of pre-recorded cassettes and long-playing records for each of the last five years and for each of the last 24 months.
§ Mr. EyreThe only official estimate available is from the 1976 retail inquiry, which gave the retail sales of gramophone records and tapes as £224 million in Great Britain in 1976. The figures include single and long-playing records and pre-recorded and blank tapes. The British Phonographic Industry Limited produces 235W regular and more detailed statistics on these goods on an annual and quarterly basis. The figures represent deliveries to the trade in the United Kingdom including imports and direct sales to the final
Pre-recorded tapes (musicassettes and 8 track cartridges) Long-playing records Units millions Value Units millions Value £ million £ million 1975 20.2 32.0 91.6 108.0 1976 18.2 33.1 83.8 117.4 1977 19.6 37.2 81.7 131.2 1978 21.2 44.0 86.1 163.2 1979 23.5 50.5 74.5 161.5 1978— 1st quarter 4.2 8.4 17.7 31.7 2nd quarter 4.0 8.1 16.8 29.9 3rd quarter 4.8 9.8 18.8 34.4 4th quarter 8.3 17.6 32.8 67.2 1979— 1st quarter 5.3 10.1 17.1 33.2 2nd quarter 4.7 10.8 14.1 31.5 3rd quarter 5.3 10.1 15.0 30.6 4th quarter 8.2 19.5 28.3 66.3 1980— 1st quarter 5.2 9.9 14.8 29.5