It may not be elegant but at least it's legal: appeal court rules on wash-up Act. As some readers know, one of this Kat's research interests is in the ins and outs of digital copyright. Accordingly, she has been keenly following the judicial review application by British Telecommunications Plc and TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc to test the compatibility of the new online infringement of copyright provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010 ('the DEA 2010') and the draft Copyright (Initial Obligations) (Sharing of Costs) Order 2011 ('the draft Costs Order') against a number of EU directives.
In April 2011, Kenneth Parker J largely disallowed BT's and TalkTalk's multifaceted challenge (see Katpost here). Yesterday the Court of Appeal (Arden, Richards and Patten LJJ) unanimously dismissed most of BT's and TalkTalk's appeal from the order of Kenneth Parker J. Permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal from Kenneth Parker J's order was granted on four grounds. Richards LJ was not persuaded (at [39]) by any additional submissions by BT and TalkTalk. Richards LJ agreed.
GovHadNoEvidence. DEA. Digital Economy Act under challenge. Two internet service providers have launched a court challenge to the copyright enforcement provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010, while OFCOM has now closed its consultation on the Initial Obligations Code. In the May edition of our IT and E-commerce Bulletin we reported on the UK Digital Economy Act, which introduces a regime under which internet service providers are initially required to assist copyright owners in taking steps to deter online copyright infringement, including peer to peer file-sharing, by notifying subscribers whose connections are alleged to have been used for copyright infringement.
Subsequently a regime may be introduced under which ISPs are required to take technical measures, such as throttling, filtering or suspension, against some subscribers’ internet connections. 1. They should have been notified in draft to the European Commission under the EU Technical Standards Directive (98/34/EC, as amended by 98/48 EC), but were not. 2. 3. 4.
DDoS against UK IPO. ACS:Law. ACS:Law facing legal action over data breach - V3.co.uk - formerly vnunet.com. Digital economy bill » Pirate Home Page. UK Anti-P2P Lawyer Faces Disciplinary Tribunal. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) decides to refer Andrew Crossley of ACS Law to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) following complaints over the firm’s practice of sending ‘bullying’ letters to people it accused of illegal file-sharing.
Back in May of last year a new law firm called ACS: Law sprang up to take on the battle of illegal file-sharing, sending out P2P “settlement” letter en masse on behalf of a number of different copyright folders. A number of innocent people we’re quickly ensnared in the dragnet and threatened that if they didn’t pay settlement fee ranging from between £300-500 ($497-828 USD) in 21 days they’d be sued for copyright infringement. At this time Consumer watchdog Which? Complained to the country’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that ACS Law engaged in ‘bullying’ and ‘excessive’ conduct. The process would take more than a year to sort out the charges. By January Which? Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com. Measures to Tackle Online Copyright Infringement: Terms of Refer. BT support call highlights Digital Economy Act problem #deact #d. A friend of mine works in Tech Support for BT.
He gets a lot of consumer support calls for broadband. This brief transcript is of one of his calls recently: Customer: I can’t get my wireless to work Tech Support: Is your wireless light on the hub holding colour or not? Customer:I don’t know it’s next door Tech Support: Oh right could you go back home and check? Customer: Oh no sorry its my neighbours hub and they are at work Tech Support: Oh so do they know you use their internet connection? Lets hope that the “customer” hasn’t been using his neighbour’s broadband for unlawfully downloading copyrighted material. DEAct DEBill Tagged as: #deact, debill, Digital Economy Act, Tech Support Calls. Internet piracy: the fictional figures - Daily Finance UK. Digital Economy Bill passes. The Dark Lord of the Sith never rests So, what many suspected has come to pass, our deepest fears confirmed and one of the worst possible texts adopted.
The Digital Economy Bill has gone through the wash-up process in the very last day of this Parliament. I am expecting others to go into the detail of what is actually in the Bill soon enough, this morning I feel neither the inclination nor the will to go through the document. However, just browsing through the online version of the Bill, it seems like the final text is not up yet, as it still contains clause 43 on orphan works, which I believe was dropped last night. What I want to comment on is something deeper, and perhaps more important in the long run than that arising from the letter of the law. The UK Parliament has been suffering since the expenses scandal broke last year. Public perception of politicians is at the lowest point in this country, just at the same time as they call a general election. Digital Economy Bill Passes, File-Sharing Ends Soon | TorrentFre.
Last night the UK Government rammed through the controversial Digital Economy Bill after its third reading and just two hours debate. This means that it will later become law, everyone will stop sharing files online and the music and movie industries will net billions in the years to come. Better still, it has the full support of the people. In a late night session yesterday the Digital Economy Bill was forced through by the Government with the assistance of the Conservative opposition. Complaints that the Bill is far too important to be passed through the “wash-up” period were ignored and after just two hours of debate in the Commons, it will now almost certainly become law. The anti-piracy measures in this Bill have been essentially written by the music industry but despite opposition from just about everyone, it was approved by 189 MPs with just 47 against.
A total of 650 MPs could have been present but only 236 bothered to turn up and many of those that did were still in for criticism. Opinion: The Devil is in ACTA's details - Security - Technology. Anti-piracy Act or the cats and mice game? « IPrivacy4IT – Clari. In this paper, TorrentFreak expose the many ways for file sharer to bypass the anti-piracy Act. As said, “The problem with using technology to fight technology is that it’s only a matter of time before the latter catches up with the former.” I am not encouraging illegal file-sharing but this article is a good demonstration of how the Digital Economy Bill is unable to reach it’s goal and will cost big investments for everyone, from the ISPs to each of us.
A new DRM fiasco, but more than that a danger for privacy and human rights as already mentioned in previous articles, see: Jo and Paul’s Pics’ Photostream CreativeCommons Some rights reserved Updates: Why public wifi could be a thing of the past in the UK thanks to draconian new law. Social media insights from #DEBill / we are social. Two weeks ago I joined about 200 people standing outside Parliament demanding that the controversial Digital Economy Bill get a democratically fair debate rather than rushed into law without scrutiny during the pre-election process known as the Wash Up. The Digital Economy Bill has been drafted largely by corporate content providers attempting to protect their industrial business models and includes measures to disconnect alleged copyright infringers without any judicial oversight. Other impacts include forcing open wifi providers, such as cafes, bars, libraries, etc, to close their networks or face crippling penalties if someone downloads copyrighted material.
The Bill also gives unprecedented powers to the Government and State to block and censor websites it (or big business) doesn’t like and take over domain names where it sees fit. In short, the Bill will make the UK’s Internet less free than China‘s and stifle innovation, creativity and economic growth. ACTA trade deal no longer secret; draft release.
It's finally out in the open: Months after activists began calling for a draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to be made public, and weeks after one leaked, the dozens of governments negotiating this multilateral trade deal ended their absurd effort to keep it a secret. And now that I've read that 39-page PDF published by the European Union this morning (it has yet to appear didn't appear until later on the Office of the United States Trade Representative's site), I don't like ACTA much more than I did back in November. This proposed agreement is what I thought it was: an intellectual-property land grab that would cement some of the uglier aspects of American law, export those provisions to other countries, possibly import even worse provisions back into the U.S. and, in the bargain, spawn a new and largely redundant international bureaucracy.
Start with Page 6, where a bracketed phrase sets off one of the biggest issues with ACTA: its potential overreach. [5. Publicity provokes firm into file-sharing rethink | The Law Gaze. Fear of adverse publicity has prompted a law firm to stop taking on cases against individuals for alleged copyright infringement through illegal downloading of material. Regional firm Tilly Bailey Irvine is one of three firms that have been subject to complaints by members of the public and consumer group Which? Over the manner in which they have pursued cases of alleged illegal file-sharing on behalf of their clients. The firm, along with London firms Davenport Lyons and ACS: Law, is currently under investigation by the SRA following complaints about alleged misconduct.
All three firms deny any impropriety. TBI managing partner John Hall said: ‘We have been surprised and disappointed at the amount of adverse publicity that our firm has attracted in relation to this work, and the extra time and resources that have been required to deal solely with this issue. The Digital Economy Act, the entertainment industry and acceptab. Three things in life are unavoidable: death, taxes and the entertainment industry. Death is not nice. Taxes are unfair. And the entertainment industry is not nice, unfair, and evil.
Why? Because in its absurd defence of a failing business model it cares not one jot for either its customers or innocent bystanders. But we can’t blame the entertainment industry alone. In the UK we have a brief breathing space before the Digital Economy Act becomes active. Is this really necessary? In May, barely five weeks later, Eircom, Ireland’s largest ISP, has decided to snuffle up to the entertainment industry’s hindquarters and become the first European ISP to actively practice “3 strikes”: if you are accused (without proof) of three acts of copyright infringement, they will take away Internet access from your entire household for a year.BoingBoing What this shows is that DE Act’s claim that there will be no disconnection without court order is meaningless. And Why? Notice this last tweet. Digital Economy Bill passes: will the UK get its own 'Great Fire.
China's internet filter, dubbed the 'Great Firewall', is frequently the subject of discussion, and a source of scorn directed at the nation's Communist government. But when it comes to defending itself against Great Firewall censorship criticisms, China might soon suggest that its critics look at another country: the UK. That's because the controversial Digital Economy Bill passed in the House of Commons last night, 189 to 47. And it gives the British government the wonderful ability to filter sites off the internet too. Although several key portions of the original bill were left out or watered down, one very troubling amendment found its way in. The amendment, made to clause 8 of the bill, essentially allows the Secretary of State for Business to block access to any website based on the mere possibility that it could somehow be involved in copyright infringement, either now or in the future.
The amendment states: Sarcasm aside, ReadWriteWeb points out: The #debill ‘could’ threaten 3G internet for iPhones | Econsulta. It’s been a few days since the controversial Digital Economy Bill got the final approval from Parliament, now it only needs Royal Assent to become law. Despite a concerted and impressive online lobbying campaign, it seems that party politics was more important than Twitter outcry.
But now the dust has settled the time has come to give the bill and all its last minute amendments some scrutiny. One thing that immediately sprung out to me on reading the bill was its assumption that IP address equates to an individual. Much has been made of this connection when talking about War-Drivers hacking your router or shared wi-fi access points in cafes, but my mind immediately thought of another situation where IP addresses are shared across hundreds, if not thousands, of users - 3G mobile phones.
When mobile phone customers connect to a 3G network using an iPhone or similar they aren’t always allocated a unique IP address. Who voted NO? « DEBill Votes. Peter Cochrane's Blog: Too late Debill - P2P is already engraine. Google's Fiber lottery: How Google picks winners Google's Fiber lottery: How Google picks winners Google Fiber has established gigabit internet in three US metro areas, with nine more targeted for the near future. Our research has turned up the metros most likely to be targeted in the next wave. Read more → Inside the digital arms race: Global cyberwar Inside the digital arms race: Global cyberwar As nations spend billions of dollars stockpiling digital weapons and tension grows between them, the risk of world cyber warfare has suddenly turned offensive.
Kimono Labs can turn any website into an API Kimono Labs can turn any website into an API Startup Kimono built a browser tool that turns any website into an API without any coding experience. Jack Wallen // April 25, 2014, 10:03 AM PST From underfunded to funded within a heartbleed Heartbleed has caused a number of open-source projects to gain some serious funding. Load More Editor's Picks Showdown: Evernote vs. Discussions. The Digital Economy Act – a thought about what we can do next. « 13 Apr 2010 April 13, 2010 Lollyman/ flikr NB: This blog was set up before the dissolution of parliament, after which there are no MPs. Until the election, I’ll be posting at www.ericjoyce.co.uk.
How can we work together to improve things here? Over the coming year there’s likely to be a bunch of Statutory Instruments (SIs, or wee bits of legislation aimed at specific problems) where everyone can influence change. I’ve written to all MPs (before the dissolution yesterday) and asked them to attend a meeting in the first week of the new parliament. Here’s the text of my letter. Dear colleague You’ll know that the Digital Economy Act was passed last week as part of the ‘wash-up’. The truncated passage of the bill brought an enormous amount of comment from people who have great knowledge of, and considerable personal involvement in, the stuff of the bill. Do email me at eric@ericjoyce.co.uk if you can. With best wishes.
Www.me.uk RevK's rants: Don't secure your wifi!!! What Digital Economy Bill? #debill. Metro - The Orwellian plan to track your music. South West Surrey · Vote Geek. Why doesn't the Labour Party respect copyright? – Telegraph Blog. McCotter’s Plan to Expand DMCA-Style Take-Downs. How to Opt-Out of Facebook’s Instant Personalization - Gadgetwis. Law in the Last Mile: Sharing Internet Access Through WiFi.
The Digital Economy Act, the entertainment industry and acceptab. ABOUT US « Deep Packet Inspection.