The review coincided with a 2006 survey carried out on behalf of the National Consumer Council, which indicated that over half of British adults infringe copyright law by duplicating and ripping music CDs.
[1] Following the review, in January 2008 the government initiated a public consultation period on proposals to legalise personal copying.
[2] The review concludes that the UK's intellectual property system is fundamentally strong but makes 54 concrete recommendations for improvements, broadly covering the areas of: strengthening enforcement; providing additional support to business; and striking a balance between protecting intellectual property and allowing free market competition.
The Gowers Review found that the UK, compared with the USA, suffers no apparent impediment to creativity due to this disparity.
In January 2009, as Google's "public policy manager", he called for reforms to incorporate exemptions similar to the United States' fair use doctrine into UK and Europe copyright law.