This morning, the European Parliament has voted to condemn member state plans to disconnect suspected illicit filesharers from the internet. In a fairly narrow vote, MEPs adopted an amendment to the so-called Bono Report on the Cultural Industries, which

“Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise that the Internet is a vast platform for cultural expression, access to knowledge, and democratic participation in European creativity, bringing generations together through the information society; calls on the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access.”

The report is not legally binding, but it does signifiy resistance among MEPs to measures currently being implemented in France to disconnect suspected illicit filesharers. This is especially relevant as France will take over the European presidency in July, and many fear that President Sarkozy would use the opportunity to push the so-called “Oliviennes” strategy Europe-wide.

The UK government will consult UK citizens on their plans to tackle illicit filesharing this Spring. We’ve already blogged about ORG’s objections to UK proposals here. In short, and as the European Parliament have recognised today, they are disproportionate, they lack consumer safeguards and they won’t stop illicit filesharing.

Last weekend, international divisions over how to deal with those who illicitly share copyrighted material online began to appear. It was announced on Saturday that Japanese internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed to cut off the internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files, in plans that mirror France’s Olivennes Bill. Meanwhile Sweden’s Minister of Justice and Minister of Culture have rejected similar plans to disconnect filesharers, stating in an article for the Svenska Dagbladet daily that such an approach is not practical in modern society where Internet access is a prerequisite for so much else. Instead, Sweden will favour a process where rightsholders must prosecute suspected filesharers in court.

The UK government will consult UK citizens on their plans to tackle illicit filesharing this Spring. If you need to brush up on the arguments ahead of time, there are still a few places left at Musicians, fans and online copyright. This event, which takes place on Wednesday, will gather representatives from the recording industry, ISPs and consumer welfare groups together with academic and legal experts to discuss whether ISPs should monitor customers to try and spot copyright infringement, and disconnect downloaders. It promises to be a lively and informed afternoon, so do come along if you can. The event is being held from 1400 at the London School of Economics. It is free to attend, but you must register here.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to their MPs over the last few weeks to ask them to object to Pete Wishart’s Private Members Bill to extend copyright term.

I’m pleased to report that an honourable member did indeed object to the Bill when it came round. He is as yet unidentified (although Hansard will hopefully reveal all over the weekend). You can spot him on the far left of the screen, sitting in the front row of the Labour benches at exactly 04:56:57 in this video of the day’s proceedings in the Commons. Look closely - is that your elected representative standing up for your rights?

Because there was no time debate the Bill, the second reading will happen again next Friday. So there’s still time to write to your MP and ask him or her to represent you on this issue. And if you haven’t already, please do sign our petition against copyright term extension in Europe.

I’m pleased to announce today the launch of a Europe-wide campaign against the extension of copyright term. Thanks to ORG volunteers, and some very nice people I met at FOSDEM, the new campaign site - soundcopyright.eu - is available in English, French and German.

Please visit the site, and sign the petition.

The recording industry has been lobbying for copyright term extension in sound recordings for many years. In the UK, the Government commissioned an independent study to examine whether term extension was a good idea for the UK creative economy. The review found that all the evidence pointed against extending term, and based on this, the UK government rejected the recording industry’s call for an extension.

Now the recording industry has taken its fight to Europe, and it looks like they’re winning - Commissioner Charlie McCreevy announced in February that he intends to extend the copyright term in sound recordings from 50 to 95 years. This is surprising, since the Commissioner’s own Internal Market Directorate have also published evidence that shows that the arguments in favour of extending term lacked substance, especially compared to the reasons for maintaining the status quo.

If you care about this issue, please sign our petition, which states simply:

The following individuals state their opposition to a copyright term extension for sound recordings.

We ask the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to ensure that policy in this area reflects all concerned stakeholders, including consumer and public interest organisations, and not just the commercial rights-holders who advocate for extended copyright term.

It’s time for European citizens to get their voices heard in this debate. Back in 2006, over 1,000 people signed ORG’s petition asking the UK government to reject term extension - and it worked. We want ten times that many to sign this new Europe-wide petition. So please, tell as many people as you can about our campaign to stop copyright term extension in Europe. We’ll use your support to lobby individual Commissioners, and to ensure that this misguided policy is rejected.

Together, we will stop copyright term extension.

European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy may have surprised us with his rogue call for copyright term extension from Brussels last week, but there are battles to be fought closer to home, too.

On 7 March, a Private Member’s Bill proposed by Pete Wishart MP will have its second reading in the House of Commons. It is vital that you write to your MP now to ask him or her to attend the Commons on 7 March and stand up and object to this Bill. If you don’t the Bill is likely to pass through to committee stage without debate.

What can you say to persuade your MP to show up to the Commons on a Friday? Perhaps you might point out that all the economic evidence points against term extension. Or that every other UK citizen is expected to contribute to their pension out of income earned in their working life. Or that retrospectively extending copyright term won’t encourage Elvis Presley to record any more new tracks. Or that if governments continue to draft intellectual property legislation on behalf of special interest groups, it will only further erode the respect that ordinary citizens have for the letter of the law.

However you choose to pitch it, you should find the ORG briefing pack on copyright term extension useful. And remember to specifically ask your MP to oppose this Bill on 7 March in the House of Commons. Writing to your MP doesn’t take long, and we’ve developed a handy guide to help you get the results you want.

And as for the European front, expect news very soon of how you can get your voice heard as an EU citizen. Together, we can stop copyright term extension, but only if we take action!

When the government mailed half the nation’s bank details to the darknet at the end of last year, it looked like 2008 was going to be the year privacy issues hit the headlines. But, when it comes to digital rights stories, privacy has been seeing stiff competition from that old foe of the digital society: regressive intellectual property policy.

At the beginning of this week, The Times leaked a DCMS document that promised tough action on illicit filesharers via a disproportionate and ineffective “3 strikes and you’re out” model of disconnection.

Then yesterday, over in Brussels, Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy resurrected the zombie of copyright term extension in sound recordings. McCreevy said he “had not seen a convincing reason” why term should not be extended from 50 to 95 years. Must we therefore conclude that he has not read the research commissioned by his own Directorate that shows that term extension makes no sense?

The UK has already come out against copyright term extension. To find out why copyright term extension is a non-starter for the UK’s creative economy, download the Open Rights Group briefing pack.

If you’re feeling the need to brush up on all of this, then you’re in luck. The Oxford Internet Institute, encouraged by ORG Advisory Council member Dr Ian Brown, and in partnership with the London School of Economics, have just announced an afternoon of talks entitled “Musicians, fans and online copyright”. Here’s the blurb:

Is home downloading killing music? Should Internet Service Providers monitor customers to try and spot copyright infringement, and disconnect downloaders? Do musicians need new laws to benefit from the opportunities of the internet? Join us to debate these questions and more with leading copyright thinkers from the music world, government, consumer groups and universities.

It’s happening on Wednesday, 19 March, from 1400-1730 at LSE’s Old Theatre on Houghton Street. I’ll be speaking, along with confirmed speakers John Kennedy (IFPI), Paul Sanders (Playlouder), Lilian Edwards (Southampton University), Rufus Pollock (Cambridge University) and Michelle Childs (Knowledge Ecology International). Entry is free, but you’ll need to register here if you want to attend.

The phone lines have been buzzing at ORG headquarters this morning, as the national media have finally wised up to the Government’s plans to compel ISPs to disconnect customers who routinely break their terms of service by sharing copyrighted content online. The Times frontpage kicked it all off, having seen leaked copies of next week’s expected DCMS green paper The World’s Creative Hub, which contained details of proposed legislation.

“Users suspected of wrongly downloading films or music will receive a warning e-mail for the first offence, a suspension for the second infringement and the termination of their internet contract if caught a third time, under the most likely option to emerge from discussions about the new law.

“Broadband companies who fail to enforce the ‘three-strikes’ regime would be prosecuted and suspected customers’ details could be made available to the courts. The Government has yet to decide if information on offenders should be shared between ISPs.”

The proposals are both disproportionate and doomed to failure. In most families, an internet connection is shared by the entire household - so if Dad gets the connection cut off for sharing movies online, suddenly Mum can’t run her business from home, and the kids can’t get access to the Web to do their homework. The Times estimates that there are 6 million people in the UK who share files illegally on the web. Any serious move towards disconnecting offenders is likely to play havoc with the Government’s ambition to foster an e-enabled society.

What’s more, as soon as law enforcers start snooping for IP addresses to pass on to ISPs for disconnection, hardcore filesharers will simply start using encryption to obfuscate their identities. Then they’ll develop software that makes it easy for non-technical people to do the same. And then industry will be back to square one.

Industry appears to be ignoring this reality, and talks instead of legislation sending out “a strong message” that filesharing is wrong. But driving illicit filesharers further underground isn’t going to earn artists a penny, and will further irritate their fans. Wouldn’t it be better if instead of spending time sending out strong messages, industry started investing in new revenue streams which compensate artists fairly and respond to consumer demand for music “on tap”?

ORG has made two press appearances so far this week. Yesterday, Suw Charman combined her two loves - the Welsh language and protecting your bits - by speaking to BBC Wales about the civil liberties implications of the proposed Welsh smartcard scheme. We’re really proud of Suw for breaking the language barrier to question the benefits of the proposed scheme, all in perfect Welsh. Unfortunately, we’re unable to link to the TV footage of Suw, but here are two follow-on articles for BBC News Online, one in Welsh and the other in English.

Meanwhile, I appeared on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme today to contribute to a discussion about how consumer demand for new ways of distributing content online can lead (slowly) to changes in intellectual property and licensing practices. The debate was sparked by a new “online PVR” service, TVcatchup.com, which launched at the end of last year. You can listen to the debate for the next seven days, on the BBC’s own catchup service.

The Open Rights Group regularly spends time talking to the media and connecting them with experts or giving them an alternate point of view on current issues. We maintain a complete list (thanks, Glyn!) of all ORG press coverage on the wiki.

Update: David Bausola of Imagination (www.imagination.com) and Rob Myers - the conceptual engineers behind the commercial media production model that uses Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike as in Ford of Europe’s Where are the Joneses? - will both be joining Tom and John (see below) for our panel Q&A at the Monday seminar

Over the last few months here at ORG Towers, we’ve been working hard on the Creative Business in the Digital Era research project, examining the way in which businesses are using open intellectual property (IP) as a central pillar of their business model.

The project culminates in three free seminars in central London during March - a full day on 17th March, and two evening seminars on 18th/19th (with roughly the same content in each) - where we’ll talk about what we’ve discovered about open IP businesses, and talk to people who are actually giving stuff away whilst also making money from it. We’ve managed to recruit three fabulous guest speakers:

Monday 17 March
- Tom Reynolds, blogger, ambulance technician and author of Blood, Sweat and Tea, published under Creative Commons licence and in paper by The Friday Project.
- John Buckman, entrepreneur, musician and founder of CC music label Magnatune.

Tuesday 18 March (evening)
- Tom Reynolds graces our presence again.

Wednesday 19 March (evening)
- David Bausola, the creative mind behind interactive online comedy Where are the Joneses?

The seminar is aimed at people within the creative industry - e.g. music, publishing, film, TV, radio, visual arts, photography - and from any size of company, whether they are freelances or a C-level exec. The course materials are all being prepped out in the open, under CC licence.

As mentioned, the seminar is free to attend - if you are interested, all you need to do is to fill in our application form.

If you’re interested yourself, please do apply! If you have a blog, podcast or Twitter account and would like to mention our seminar, please do. And if you know of anyone who might be interested in coming, feel free to tell them about it.

Our deadline for applications is 15th February, so apply now!

Today, the ORG Creative business team have announced that the application process for their free seminars “Creative Business in the Digital Era” is now open. The seminars, aimed at artists and creative entrepreneurs who want to make the most of the opportunities presented by the internet, will take place in March in central London and the deadline for applications is 15 February. You can find out more on the Creative Business microsite.

When the Open Rights Group stands up to over-zealous intellectual property legislation, or intrusive and censorious regulation intended to “protect artists”, we are often asked “well, how else do you expect artists to make money?”. This course might not have all the answers to the question, but its a good start. Suw, Michael and Jordan have been working away since the middle of last year preparing it - and they deserve hearty congratulations for what looks to be an excellent and innovative result. If you’re a writer, musician, film maker or visual artist, or a manager, promoter, or executive in the music, publishing, film/TV or visual arts industries, get on over to the Creative Business microsite and find out how to apply.