Whitehall gives ISPs piracy deadline
,----[ Quote ]
| The government will on Friday tell internet service providers they will be
| hit with legal sanctions from April next year unless they take concrete steps
| to curb illegal downloads of music and films.
|
| Britain would be one of the first countries in the world to impose such
| sanctions. Service providers say what the government wants them to do would
| be like asking the Royal Mail to monitor the contents of every envelope
| posted.
|
| Andy Burnham, culture secretary, told the Financial Times on Thursday that
| the deadline was a “clear signal” of the government’s determination to tackle
| rampant piracy, which the music and film industries blame for the slump in CD
| and DVD sales.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/26765228-e0c0-11dc-b0d7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Related:
War on music piracy
,----[ Quote ]
| Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the Government was aware of the
| views put by the music industry for a code of conduct for ISPs to address
| file-sharing by subscribers.
|
| "We will also examine any UK legislation on this issue [including any
| three-strikes policy] with particular interest," he said.
|
| Music Industry Piracy Investigations general manager Sabiene Heindl said her
| organisation had been lobbying for the policy for 12 months.
`----
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/16/1202760662778.html
ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue
,----[ Quote ]
| ISPs are calling on the record industry to put its money where its mouth is
| on illegal file-sharing, by underwriting the cost of lawsuits brought by
| people who are wrongly accused of downloading or uploading music.
|
| [...]
|
| It's the latest public detail from long-running private negotiations that
| have hit mainstream media headlines today. The lobbying campaign to have
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| government force ISPs to disconnect persistent illegal file-sharers scored a
| victory with a leak to The Times. The draft government document says: "We
| will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action
| on illegal file-sharing."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/
Illegal downloaders 'face UK ban'
,----[ Quote ]
| The Internet Service Providers Association said data protection laws would
| prevent providers from looking at the content of information sent over their
| networks.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7240234.stm
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5jkZFIwmc-8
Lessig: Required Reading: the next 10 years
,----[ Quote ]
| Yet governments continue to push ahead with this idiot idea -- both Britain
| and Japan for example are considering extending existing terms. Why?
|
| The answer is a kind of corruption of the political process. Or better,
| a "corruption" of the political process. I don't mean corruption in the
| simple sense of bribery. I mean "corruption" in the sense that the
| system is so queered by the influence of money that it can't even get
| an issue as simple and clear as term extension right.
`----
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003800.shtml#003800
RIAA, MPAA urge pro-copyright vows from presidential candidates
,----[ Quote ]
| One question, for instance, asks: "How would you promote the progress of
| science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding
| and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?"
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9821141-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Is Sarko Uxorious?
,----[ Quote ]
| What this neglects to take into account is the fact that falling into the
| public domain is a gain for the public - and hence the actual moment when it
| becomes part of the "national pop heritage" - and that the gain vastly
| outweighs any minimal effect it has on ageing rockers' royalties.
| Unfortunately, with this action, as with others (including the "three strikes
| and you're out" approach to fighting filesharing), Sarkozy shows himself to
| be an old man - however young his new wife may be.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/02/is-sarko-uxorious.html
MEPs debate tightening up lobbying rules
,----[ Quote ]
| MEPs on Thursday launched the thorny debate on tightening rules covering the
| thousands of EU lobbyists in Brussels, with an initial discussion showing
| deputies in favour of defining the term "lobbyist" as broadly as possible but
| shying away from the 600-page rulebook that defines and confines lobbyists in
| the US.
|
| [...]
|
| For his part, Mr Stubb says he is not out to demonise lobbyists, whose
| activities have come to light recently during the ferocious lobbying on
| legislation that took place during the development of the chemicals, services
| and software patent laws.
`----
http://euobserver.com/9/25526
,----[ Quote ]
| "A source that deals with the company said unofficially that Gates
| proposed Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology as a national
| standard to fight piracy at the governmental level."
`----
http://www.kommersant.com/p719683/r_528/
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
|
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure group, the
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109
|
|
