The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is calling on individuals and organisations in the creative industries to submit written evidence regarding the proposed changes to UK copyright law under the Digital Economy Act.

The inquiry will look at "the extent to which [the act] is a reasonable and sufficient response to the challenges facing creative industries and individuals in digital markets." The Committee will particularly look at "intellectual Property and barriers to new internet-based business models, including information access, the costs of obtaining permissions from existing rights-holders, and 'fair use'.' 

The move follows David Cameron's announcement on Monday of a six month review into intellectual property rights in the UK. The Government is considering the introduction of a new "fair use" provision similar to the one currently in place in the US, which would allow limited use of copyrighted work without the copyright holder's permission.

Cameron argues that the copyright laws should be reviewed to allow companies such as Facebook and Google to use content created by others.

In a speech given last week, Cameron said: "The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the United States. Over there, they have what are called 'fair-use' provisions, which some people believe gives companies more breathing space to create new products and services."

Read our full report on David Cameron's announcement here.

Written evidence should be emailed to cmsev@parliament.uk with 'The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Online' in the subject line. The deadline for submissions is 5 January 2011.

BJP will be participating in the inquiry.

View www.parliament.uk/cmscom.