The Alliance for the Protection of Copyright (APC) has published an updated code for the submission and receipt of proposals for film, television and radio.

The current members of the APC (BECTU, Directors UK, Musicians’ Union, The Society of Authors, National Union of Journalists, Women in Film and Television and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain) with the support of the BBC, ITV, C4, Five, AETN UK (History, Bio and Crime & Investigation Network, Military History), the Radio Independents Group, S4C and Pact are seeking to encourage the use of the Code throughout the industry.

Although the update seems to be widely welcomed, there are some shortcomings. With the increased number of digital channels, the Code needs to be more widely accepted in new media in order to claim that it has become the industry standard.

There is also a fine dividing line between the type of pitch that is an early verbal expression of an idea, and a fully fledged treatment that is covered by the Code.

UK law also struggles when dealing with the protection of a format, when compared to the settled position for copyright protection for a script.