5 posts tagged releasethemusic

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).

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.

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.

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.

A year ago today, the Gowers Review was released to the public. The Government accepted all of the 54 recommendations it made, and experts welcomed the balanced approach it took to intellectual property law in the digital age, since it matched greater flexibility with tougher measures on enforcement