What does the Gowers Report mean for web designers and graphic artists today?
Silas Brown: The Gowers Report, a government review of IP legislation, was not heavy on changes to the copyright laws, but what it did say is that there should be changes to the legislation to give tougher penalties for online infringement of copyright. The other thing that it said is that there should be greater support for digital rights management (DRM), whereby graphic designers, web designers and people who put digital content online should be supported in using methods to stop infringements happening in the first place. So things like making it impossible to save an image by right-clicking it off a website, putting up JavaScript warnings saying “This is a copyright work”, and using things like digital watermarks, either visible or in the background source code. I expect to see more of that kind of thing in the future if new legislation is brought out. So regarding IP-based law as it now stands, what should design professionals be aware of? Studios or agencies that don’t have larg
