'No deal' Brexit could stop UK companies processing media from the EU with metadata
Co-founder of #3blokesinapub and Anti-Brexit campaigner Jason Hunter has recently been touring the UK speaking to many different industry groups - this article highlights the potential issues with processing content with metadata across borders.
A little talked about billion pound industry that would be killed dead by a no deal Brexit is the post production sector. This is where UK editors and graphics experts (a lot based in Soho where the movie Gravity was made) take video clips for movies, adverts etc and then edit and graft the clips together to make a feature film or similar.
I'm not an expert in this sector but when on my nationwide tour I met with over 100 representatives of the Media and Entertainment Industry at a specific event. What currently happens is a cameraman might film Tom Cruise leaping off a building in Dusseldorf in a 3 minute segment for a movie. This clip is then piped to London and pops up on the computer in London where they might make Tom look a bit taller, or give him a shave, or change the lighting etc
Within that video file piping it's way to London lots of 'meta data' is attached containing things like the name of cast members, camera and sound staff, with email addresses, contact details and other information that would be effected by GDPR and data protection.
As EU members, this is friction free for UK post production companies and not a problem. BUT, when I was in Brussels was told by a representative of the EU Commission that this would no longer be possible with the UK as a 3rd country, it would be effectively illegal for UK companies to continue to run the same process, especially with a no deal Brexit. The roll on effect of this threat to a billion pound industry in the UK is that staff are relocating into an EU member state in order that they can continue to operate.
This then reduces corporate tax take out of the UK, it reduces our skills base (many of whom are UK tax paying EU citizens), and effectively exports an advanced industry out of the UK.
We have known this since the EU Preparedness Notices began being published in late 2017 and early 2018 and yet the Government dont seem to care how many industries collapse as we have seen about the lack of interest in the car industry.
Exactly how bad do things have to get?
(Reposted with permission from Jason Hunter's Facebook article 3/8/19)