The Minister responsible for intellectual Property, Chris Skidmore has stated very clearly that the UK Government has no intention of implementing the EU Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. The deadline for member states to transpose the Directive into their own laws is June 2021 by which time the UK will almost certainly have left the EU, so perhaps this should not come as a surprise, given that it may be politically difficult to be seen to be voluntarily implementing an EU measure in the circumstances.

Some of the new exceptions contained within the DSM Directive look very positive for the library and research communities, particularly the measures which provide a practical route for the digitisation and making available of “0ut-of-commerce works” on a large scale,while respecting the copyright in those works. So it is an interesting question whether the favourable measures from the Directive could also be implemented separately in the UK, outside of the framework of the EU Directive. Naturally even if that does prove possible, the UK will still lose out  on the advantages which will spring from the fact that some of the exceptions work across borders between member states.