Please follow the link below to read the latest supporters update, which details our activities in the month of February, including great press activity and a list of upcoming events.
Much for you to pore over in the June 2007 Supporter Update
If you’re not receiving these updates by email but wish to then please let me know, either by email or in the comments section below.
Most of the thirty ORG election observers who have volunteered to devote a day to democracy on 3 May have now received their official accreditation from the Electoral Commission. ORG’s monitoring team dominates the group of offical observers accredited by the commission last week. We’ll be paying special attention to the running of electronic voting and electronic counting pilots in Bedford, Rushmoor, Sheffield, Shrewsbury and Atcham, South Bucks, Stratford and Swindon. Observers will also be monitoring Scottish elections where e-counting is set to be deployed widely for the first time.
Today, Michael is mailing out hard copies of our election observer handbook, as well as limited edition ORG “election observer” T Shirts, which will make us easily recognisable to officials and candidates on the day. Last night, a few of the observers met up at the ICA in London to watch a screenig of Hacking Democracy, and chat with directors Russell Michaels and Simon Ardizzone.
We email out a Supporters Update on the last day of each month. It contains a mixture of news, press and events items as well as suggestions for ways to volunteer and help ORG’s work. Past missives are archived at the links below.
If you’re an ORG supporter but you’re not receiving our monthly update by email (and if you’d like to!) then please ping michael[at]openrightsgroup.org with your contact details to receive future messages.
The Patent Office needs to hear from artists and creators. Please let us help you get in touch.
The Patent Office is charged with implementing the exciting recommendations suggested in the recent Gowers Review of IP. But they are yet to be convinced of the crucial need for some of these recommendations, mainly because they’re finding it hard to get in touch with the relevant practioners. They are looking for concrete examples of creative practices inhibited by the law, to back up proposed exceptions for the purposes of “creative, transformative or derivative works” and “caricature, parody or pastiche”.
Would you, your colleagues, students or collaborators benefit from these exceptions? Are you working or have you worked on a project outlawed by the overly-protectionst copyright regime, which would have benefited from these kinds of exceptions? If so, please get in touch - info[at]openrightsgroup.org - and share your experience.
Rights holders were of course quick to lobby against these suggested exceptions. In their opinion the dismal and labour-intensive “must-ask-permission!” culture of copyright-licensing works just fine as it is. They don’t see the creative and social opportunities in remixing and poking fun, only the economic-downsides in losing control of their ‘IP assets’.
But if you are a practicing artist with relevant experiences to share, please get in touch today so we can show the importance of copyright exceptions to Patent Office.
Our submission to this consultation is available here
There are concerns proposed WIPO legislation will further extend the social and cultural dominance of trad broadcasters over the internet, as mentioned here on this blog. An announcement this week by the WIPO General Assembly regarding the draft Broadcast Treaty offers encouragement to activists, and has been hailed as a “huge victory for the public interest.” Reports call for celebration on two counts.
The proposed legislation will now at least face further scrutiny. Rather than procede directly to a Diplomatic Conference (DC) next Summer - WIPO’s mechanism for passing new laws - the draft will be considered in two interim meetings intended to bring about a consensus. The draft’s sponsors hoped to avoid this scrutiny and simply force the legislation through, but popular opposition from a broad consensus, and disagreement amongst signatories evidently required WIPO to think more carefully. India, Brazil and the US led the calls for further review.
In addition to scheduling further discussions on the draft, it was decided to reject the controversial rights-based approach in favour of a signal-based mechanism. So the needless extension of exclusive control over 3rd party cultural productions has been rejected, in favour of legislation which pursues the less protectionist agenda of preventing theft of broadcaster’s signals.
This news is genuinely heartening. WIPO gets a lot of stick for its un-democratic methods, but this announcement suggests activists and academics can influence even the most elite bureaucrats. And beyond that, the expansion of protectionist IP regimes is not inevitable; let’s hope we score a similar victory with our Release the Music campaign…
To mark today as the global ‘Day Against DRM’, inspired by Michael Geist, here’s a list of 30 easy things we can do about DRM.
1. Write to your local Member of Parliament. Letters (which are better than email) from just a handful of constituents are enough to get the attention of your local MP. Contact information and further advice here
2. Write to the Prime Minister. Contact information available here
3. Write to Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary, especially if you live in her Dulwich and West Norwood constituency. She’s in charge of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, whose contact details are here
4. Write to Shaun Woodward, Minister for the Creative Industries and Tourism, especially if you live in his St. Helen’s South constituency. Contact details here
5. Write to David Lammy, Culture Minister, who is responsible for the arts market, especially if you live in his Tottenham constitutency. Contact details here
6. Write to David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville , a major philanthropist and parliamentarian who specialises in Science and Innovation. Contact (and background information) here
7. Ask each political party where it stands on copyright. Copyright policy could prove to be a divisive issue at the polls - ask each political party for their views on the issue.
8. Write to your MEP; much of our copyright policy comes from Brussels and the EU, so worth informing your representative at the European Parliament that their legislation is dead important. Find out who your MEP is here
9. Write to the CBI - ‘the voice of business’ - contact details here
10. Write to your local councillor. The more politicians made aware of the ills of copyright the better. Find your local represenative here
11. Write a letter to the Foreign Office on our international copyright position. Our government should be lobbying the World Intellectual Property Organisation not to simply replicate US-style copyright reforms, but rather to consider different approaches to copyright - anti-circumvention measures in particular - that do not harm the public domain for the benefit of private interests.
12. Write to the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance - a great ally in our fight - and support their support their position by providing examples of problems copyright has caused to their local and university/school libraries. Contact information here
13. Write to the Office of Fair Trading. The combination of DRM and anti-circumvention legislation raises significant marketplace competition concerns. The OFT must become engaged on this issue by advocating pro-competitive and pro-consumer reforms. Moreover, it should be investigating cases of alleged abusive use of DRM. Contact information here
14. Write the National Consumer Council. The use of DRM raises numerous consumer concerns, potentially requiring specific consumer protection provisions and labeling requirements. The NCC are well aware of this issue in terms of data protection and consumer privacy online; tell them your personal experiences of being disadvantaged by DRM. Contact info here
15. Write to the Information Commissioner’s Office to ask for their support in protecting your personal privacy against DRM. Contact info here
16. Raise the issue with your local library. The library community has been very engaged on copyright and will hopefully be a vocal stakeholder for any future reforms. At the local level, libraries can be encouraged to establish copyright policies that fully support user rights and to educate the local community on important access issues. Check your local council’s website for contact information for your nearest library.
17. Raise the issue with your local school. If you are in school or have children currently in school, inquire how the school addresses copyright issues. Does it take full advantage of user rights? Is it aware of how the education exceptions may be limited by anti-circumvention legislation?
18. Sign a petition. For example, there is a petition calling on Bono to help join the campaign against DRM. Sign up here.
19. Support the Open Rights Group. ORG is a fledgling NGO formed to protect your digital rights through lobbying and media awareness. Join our discussion list and support us here
20. Buy online DRM-free alternatives. The copyright lobby argues that DRM is a pre-requisite to offering digital content online, yet there are many DRM-free online music services. For example, eMusic, the largest such service, is now the second largest online music service worldwide.
21. Support music labels that offer their music without DRM or copy-controls. Typically the major labels prefer DRM, whilst independent labels are less protectionist. Try, for example, bleep.com
22. Ensure that your local retailer will accept returns on DRM’d products. Many retailers sell DRM’d products without altering return policies to account for the fact that the products may not function as expected. Raise this with your local retailer and encourage them to adopt liberal return policies for DRM’d products.
23. Ask your ISP what it is doing to stand up for your rights. Britain’s Internet service providers play an important role in defending user rights by only disclosing subscriber personal information with a court order, informing subscribers of requests for their personal information, and by lobbying for an expanded fair dealing provision. Ask your ISP for its policies on these issues.
24. Participate in a local meeting on copyright. There are a growing number of local “meetup” style meetings that bring together citizens concerned with balanced copyright. If there is a meeting group in your area, go. If not, get one started.
25. Support more balanced copyright positions from artists and creator groups. Many artists and creators are increasingly abandoning policy positions that favour U.S. style reforms and instead embracing a more balanced approach. If you are a musician, tell the Musician’s Union or British Music Rights your perspective.
26. Use Creative Commons licensing. Creative Commons, which adopts a “some rights reserved” approach to copyright provides an exceptional (and exceptionally easy) method of supporting both copyright and access. More information here
27. Read licence terms. Increasingly contracts are being used that limit or eliminate user rights. Until legislation blocks the use of such terms, consumers should proactively read licence terms and reject those that unfairly limit their user rights.
28. Track media coverage of copyright. Until recently, media coverage on copyright rarely questioned the sound bites from the copyright lobby. That is changing, but Britain’s media should be challenged when it fails to do so. Letters to the editor or a op-eds are a great place to start.
29. Educate yourself. There are lots of great sources on the implications of copyright reform…
30. Educate others. Once you know more about copyright reform issues, tell others. Educate friends, family, and co-workers. Copyright impacts us all.
And check this brand new site for the latest news and updates on the anti-DRM campaign - drm.info
This Saturday 30th September there is an anti-DRM event in Central London, outside the Apple Store at 235 Regents Street, starting at 1400 until 1700.
As with the previous DefectiveByDesign events this will be a HAZMAT suit parade which should be colourful, fun and effectively convey the message about restrictive technology and it’s problems across to the general public.
I hope to see some of you there!
If you would like to have your name added as a signatory of this open letter please mail rufus [at] openrightsgroup [dot] org.
FAO: Roger Wright, Controller BBC Radio 3
Dear Mr Wright,
We are writing because of recent news reports that the BBC plans to severely limit the availability of downloads during its planned Bach season:
“BBC Radio 3 will not offer complete classical music downloads for free during its forthcoming 10-day Bach extravaganza following complaints from the music industry after the surprise success of the station’s Beethoven downloads.”_[1]
A spokesperson explicitly stated: “Nothing will happen without consultation and, should it happen, it will be nothing on the scale of Beethoven.”
We believe that the BBC’s offering of downloads during its Beethoven season was a wonderful idea for which the BBC should be commended, not criticized. The level of downloading should be taken as a demonstration of the public value of this activity and a reason to continue, not curtail, it.
We therefore wish to register in the strongest possible terms our objection to any reduction or removal of downloading access during the upcoming Bach season, as well as our desire to see the ‘Beethoven policy’ continued, and extended.
The BBC is a public entity largely funded by the licence fee to which we all contribute. Organizing such musical seasons and promoting the widest possible access to the results is exactly how we believe the BBC should be using those contributions.
We find the complaints of various parts of the recording industry not only selfish but short-sighted. It seems to follow from an assumption, expounded without any evidence, that downloads of classical music from the BBC deleteriously affect music sales from other, primarily commercial, entities. In our view it seems likely that the very opposite is the case: by promoting access, exposure and interest in classical music such schemes, especially in the long run, increase the demand and interest in these works, as well as in those who perform them.
Even were it the case that there were negative effects on the sales of record labels the benefits to British society would greatly outweigh these losses. The reasoning for this is simple but to follow it we must bear in mind that just because something is free it is not valueless, quite the contrary: its value is entirely unchanged.
Firstly each download that displaces a sale has no effect on societal value: all that has happened is that value equal to the price has been transferred from the seller to the consumer. Secondly each download that goes to someone who would not have purchased absent downloading is pure gain to our society (its value precisely equal to the amount of benefit they derive from the work). This second category is undoubtedly substantial. Even for major works, such as Beethoven’s symphonies, it is clear simply from the (rumoured) numbers involved that most of those downloading would never have bought. For more obscure works, which might not even be available commercially, this second category would clearly predominate (one of the particularly noteworthy features of the Beethoven season — and the planned Bach one — is that they aimed to cover all of that composer’s works).
Classical music is an essential, and highly valued, part of our culture and we find it entirely inappropriate that access should be restricted on narrow, and mistaken, ‘commercial’ grounds. The benefit to us, as individuals and as a society, of greater access to these works greatly outweigh any costs. Thus we formally request that the BBC repeat the policy adopted during its Beethoven-week both for Bach and future seasons by providing free online downloads of the material wherever it is able to. We believe that it is only in this way that the BBC can fully live up to its mission as a public service broadcaster.
Yours Sincerely,
Rufus Pollock, Open Rights Group and the Open Knowledge Foundation
Cory Doctorow, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Tom Chance, RemixReading and FreeCulture-UK
Andrea Rota, Liquid Culture
James Davis, Union for the Public Domain
Peter Clay, Campaign for Digital Rights
Desiree Miloshevic, Public Advisory Board, CC-UK
Andy Williamson, Managing Director, Flat Five Records
Owen Blacker, volunteer, Stand.org.uk
Ben Laurie, Licence Payer
Andrew Murray, Licence Payer
Barry Quayle, Licence Payer
Adam Bowie, Licence Payer
Tom Webster, Youth Worker, St. Columba’s Church of Scotland
Steven Rajam, Classical Musician, Wales
Mark Lord, Licence Payer
James Hobson, Licence Payer
Richard Weeks, brightbeat founder, London
Dave Mallon, Liverpool
David Mack, Licence Payer
Rodney Orpheus, Record Producer
Dafydd Harries, Licence Payer
David Bates, Licence Payer
Simon Ward, Listener, Manchester
Dennis North, Licence Payer
and 60 others ….
[1] http://media.guardian.co.uk/bbc/story/0,,1606160,00.html
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