Nowadays I am very sceptical about reading government consultation reports. After all, recent events would lead us to believe that consultation and evidence-based advice appears to be systematically ignored by decision-makers, and that the commercial interest will always prevail. So I was almost ready to ignore the report from the Read more
Last night I attended the event organised by the Scottish Society of Computers and the Law entitled Copyright law and market economics: who does the dancing and who calls the tune? with Will Page, chief economist for PRS, and Niklas Ivarsson from Spotify (I don’t need to link to Spotify Read more
There were many reasons to believe that the UK would not be seeing any three-strikes legislation against file-sharing. First, the European Union had declared that it was a bad idea. Second, HADOPI had been declared unconstitutional in France. But most importantly, the Digital Britain report had considered that the proposal Read more
A common argument used by those opposed to maximalist copyright reform and excessive copyright enforcement is that the answer to the problem of illegal downloads is not to sue customers and enact more restrictive legislation, but to seek out new business models. While the industry has claimed that it has Read more
Feargal Sharkey has taken on one of those jobs that attract almost universal derision. The former vocalist for The Undertones has become the spokesperson for the UK music industry, a job akin to serving as the front for a kitten pie manufacturer in the eyes of many. Respect must go Read more
Thank goodness for the Swedish Pirate Party. In the middle of a depressing political landscape across Europe that has seen far-right parties make some significant headways, the always-progressive Swedes have given one of their 18 European Parliament seats to the defenders of all things piratical. The Pirate Party advocates the Read more
After yesterday’s rant about journalists, it is fair that we highlight informed commentary. Billy Bragg has written a refreshing article calling on the music industry not to penalise fans with their misguided 3-strikes strategy. He comments that: “Stating that a “write and sue” policy will not work is an admission Read more
Good news everyone! The discussion on the Telecomms Package at the European Parliament has produced a good result against “three-strikes and you’re out” policies, as some of the measures that would involve cutting internet connection have been sent back to the negotiating table.I have not been keeping up with the Read more
(via ORG-discuss list) Pirates, pirates, pirates. it’s all there is in the news lately. Pirates in Somalia, pirates in Sweden, pirates online, pirates in culture. We have pirates jumping out of our breakfast cereals it seems. Last week saw the pinnacle of hyperbolic coverage of piracy of the Internet sort Read more
Edited February 2012: This old entry is getting a lot of hits from Google, so I have decided to update it. There was an appeal to the sentence described below on October 2010, which reduced the sentences. On January 2012, the Supreme Court of Justice of Sweden denied another appeal Read more