Peter Cox, agent and founder of the agency Redhammer, talking as part of a panel on "Innovation in Marketing and Business Practice", moderated by Richard Mollet, chief executive of the Publishers Association, said agents should be working harder to build their clients' brands, rather than "plundering their digital rights".

Cox was given the opportunity to reiterate his view that agents acting as publishers was "morally wrong", and stressed that it was the height of naivety to believe they could do a better job than traditional publishers.

Cox was challenged from the floor by Charlie Campbell, agent at Ed Victor, which announced its decision to publish under the imprint Bedford Square Books in May. Campbell accused Cox of not fully understanding what was being planned by those agents who were using p.o.d. and digital to bring their authors' work back into publication, he said: "You seem to have a strong sense about what it is going to be even before we do."

But Cox responded: "I met a fox at dusk the other day near my house, and he was heading toward my hen coop, and you know what, he said the same thing you've just said."

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