The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) releases its report into Digital Rights Management. The inquiry received over 90 written submissions from consumers, Think Tanks, libraries, print media publishers, the film and music industries and lawyers. An oral evidence session was organised at the House of Commons in February when a cross selection of the respondents were invited to give evidence to APIG officers. Among the key points of the report:
A recommendation that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) bring forward appropriate labelling regulations so that it will become crystal clear to consumers what they will and will not be able to do with digital content that they purchase.
A recommendation that OFCOM publish guidance to make it clear that companies distributing Technical Protection Measures systems in the UK would, if they have features such as those in Sony-BMG’s MediaMax and XCP systems, run a significant risk of being prosecuted for criminal actions.
A recommendation that the Department of Trade and Industry investigate the single-market issues that were raised during the Inquiry, with a view to addressing the issue at the European level.
A recommendation that the government do not legislate to make DRM systems mandatory.
More details from APIG’s website here, and from the BBC here.
June 6th, 2006
Starnberg, Germany (June 06, 2006) — Florian Mueller, the founder of the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, has published his book, “No Lobbyists As Such - The War over Software Patents in the European Union”, on the Internet. Over 377 pages, Mueller tells the story of the legislative process that ended in July last year with a landslide vote of the European Parliament against a proposal for a software patent directive. The book is now available on the Internet for download
Released under a Creative Commons license Mueller explained in his blog that he wants “to get [this] book out to a large audience, especially since the next major war over software patents in Europe will officially break out on July 12 at a hearing to be held by the European Commission in Brussels. The same forces who supported the software patent directive we successfully fought against are now trying to achieve everything they wanted the last time, and even more, by means of the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA).”
June 6th, 2006
A meeting on the UKPO consultation on Inventive Step and its relation to software and business process patents in the UK and EU organized by FFII-UK. It is free to attend but as we need to know numbers please let us know if you plan to
come by emailing coordinator@ffii.org.uk
When: Monday May 22nd 2006, 1730 - 1930
Where: Derek Willoughby Lecture Theatre, John Vane Science Centre, Charterhouse Square, London. Online Map here and here
Programme (subject to change):
* 1730 - 1800: Drinks and a chance to chat
* 1800: Introduction to the consultation and recent developments in the area by a
member of FFII-UK
* 1815 - 1900: Panel (details tbc)
* 1900 - 1930: Discussion
* 2000: Supper at a nearby restaurant (if you would like to attend please state this
when you rsvp. Note the supper is /not/ free.)
RSVP to coordinator@ffii.org.uk
Acknowledgements: This event is kindly hosted by the Queen Mary IP Research Institute
May 9th, 2006
As the EU Commission seeks to build a European Digital Library, PJ, of the award winning Groklaw website, sets her sights on the world leading British Library and in particular on its increasingly controversial attitude to DRM, fair-dealing and copyright in the digital age.
“If [the EU] duplicate what they have done at the British Library, I think it’s fair to say that it is the death of public libraries as we have known them, and the world’s knowledge will be available only DRM’d and for a price.”
Full article here
May 9th, 2006
In a statement today the EU Commission announced it has adopted a proposal for a directive to combat intellectual property offences.
Specifically the directive is intended to be “[…] applied to all types of intellectual
property right infringements. In the directive, all intentional
infringements of an intellectual property right on a commercial scale,
including attempting, aiding and abetting such infringements, are treated
as criminal offences. The minimum sentence is a term of four years’
imprisonment where the infringement is committed under the aegis of a
criminal organisation or carries a serious risk to the health and safety
of individuals. The amount of the fine will have to be at least EUR 100
000 or EUR 300 000 where there is a link with a criminal organisation or
any risk to health and safety. Member States may impose heavier penalties
or fines. “
Full EU commission press release available here.
The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) has commented on the proposed move and Wikipedia provides further information in addition.
April 27th, 2006
News of an important event in London on Saturday April 7th:
The Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) gives advance notice of a special visit being made from Brussels by Ciarán O’Riordan of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) to give a talk about Free Software and threats such as Software Patents. In addition Gareth Bowker will give a short speech about Copyright Laws and Open Source Software. This event will be held on Friday 7th April 2006 from 6.30pm at the British Computer Society (BCS) Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA. To book a place at this event please email your details to mark_elkins@bcs.org
Ckick here for more information
April 1st, 2006
In a speech at the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue conference in Brussels yesterday Rufus Pollock, Director FFII-UK, elaborated on his vision for future debate surrounding intellectual property policy:
“I believe that where we stand today politically with respect to innovation policy and IP is where we stood with respect to environmental issues 30 or 40 years ago. Just like on innovation policy with environmental issues you see concentrated interests pitted against those of the general public. There also you have growing political engagement as a result of significant external changes. And just like with the environment 40 years ago we are beginning to build a movement to properly represent the public in these issues.
Today when you look at a political party it will have a position on the environment and we even have ‘Green’ parties — albeit generally small ones — specifically focused on those issues. We’ve even got to the stage where in the UK the Conservaties, a right wing party, took out full-page ads to announce its new policy agenda one of the five bullet points was about the environment.
Similarly I think 30 years from now innovation policy will have the same prominence. All political parties will have positions on these kinds of issues, and not buried away somewhere in their manifesto but the kind of things they mention when they take out those full-page ads. There will also be a much, much fuller civil society engagement in these issues.”
Full article available here
March 21st, 2006
With just under two weeks remaining till the official deadline for responses to the EU Community Patent Consultation passes, FFII is urging small and medium enterprises, individuals and stakeholders to prepare their submissions.
In a letter to small and medium enterprises Pieter Hintjens, Director FFII, said:
“The question of software patents affects us all, and we must seize this opportunity to influence future laws. It is not often that we can make a difference, but this is one of those few times. The FFII will be monitoring the consultation process and holding a dialogue with the Commission to represent you.”
Full FFII analysis is available online here
If you have questions please send them to consultation@ffii.org
March 21st, 2006
Speaking at a panel discussion on implications of a new attempt by the European Commission to overhaul the E.U.’s patent system, the president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) warned that such a review could lead to software patents.
“If you take the case law of the EPO (European Patent Office) and apply it across the board, that means allowing software patents,” said Pieter Hintjens, who is also founder and managing director of a Belgian software company, iMatix.
Hintjens said that, from his contacts with the chief executive officers of small and medium-size businesses, it was clear they did not like and did not trust software patents. He cited a patent held by a company in Belgium called All is Blue which covered the management of e-mail and address data in response to text messages as an example of a “trivial” patent where the company was trying to earn money from exploiting its patent rights.
In February, the European Commission, which drafts laws for the 25-member bloc, launched a new round of public consultations on the E.U.’s patent system to find out from industry and interest groups what changes were needed to the regime to make it easier to use.
Full article available here.
February 27th, 2006
The Gowers review of Intellectual Property has announced details of its call for evidence:
“At the Enterprise Conference on 2 December 2005, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that, as part of the Pre-Budget Report 2005 package, he was asking Andrew Gowers to lead an Independent Review to examine the UK’s intellectual property framework. Mr. Gowers will be assisted by a small secretariat of civil service officials. The review will report to the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Autumn 2006. The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property launched its consultation phase with a formal call for evidence on 23 February 2006.”
“The call for evidence consists of a letter from Andrew Gowers, accompanying an issues paper, which provides details of the scope of the Review and sets out a number of general and specific issues on which we would particularly like to gather evidence. It also invites respondents to highlight other issues for consideration by the Review.”
Click here for more information.
February 27th, 2006
Next Posts
Previous Posts
![[ technology awards winner ]](http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/images/ctawinner-portrait.gif)
About
FFII-UK is a national branch of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), a Europe-wide non-profit association which campaigns to promote competition and innovation in the field of software development. We seek a positive environment for the development of information goods, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards. More
Links
Categories
Feeds