EU Public Affairs Monitor - 18/11/08

Tennessee anti-P2P law to cost colleges over $13 million November 18, 2008
With the RIAA's long-running legal war against file-sharing not having the desired effects, the music industry has turned its sights on legislation aimed at getting others to do the dirty work of copyright enforcement. Last week, they scored a victory when the state of Tennessee passed a law that would require colleges and universities to work to prevent copyright infringement over campus networks. It's great news for the RIAA, but bad news for Tennessee students and taxpayers who will have to foot the $13 million bill.

SB 3974 was introduced this past February into the state legislature. Championed by the RIAA, who pointed to the University of Tennessee's no. 4 position on the list of top music piracy schools, and the MPAA, which noted the school's no. 19 spot on its infringement list, the law will force both public and private schools in the state to implement policies to prevent and prohibit copyright infringement on campus computers and networks." [ArsTechnica]

Antipiracy group pushes 10 years jail time for UK infringers November 19, 2008
"Those guilty of online copyright infringement deserve criminal sentencings that are just as harsh as those who've been busted for commercial physical piracy, according to a UK-based antipiracy group. The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) is pushing the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to adopt modifications to current copyright law that would punish online infringers with 10 years of imprisonment, "to bring parity with commercial dealing in pirated works."

The IPO is currently in the process of considering changes to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 based on the independently-conducted Gowers Review of Intellectual Property. The Gowers report, wrapped up in 2007, concluded that, "the intention and impact of physical and online infringement are the same. Crimes committed on the online and physical world should not be subject to different sentences. Increasing the penalties for online infringement will therefore make the law coherent." As a result, Gowers wrote that punishment for online infringers should be increased to 10 years in jail, suggestion that's now known as Recommendation 36." [ArsTechnica]

What’s wrong with ISP Music Licensing Fall 2008
"The decline of revenues in the music industry has led the industry to take a closer look at the responsibilities of Internet service providers “ISPs” and alternative compensation schemes both in the United States and in Europe. Many schemes have been considered to compensate the creative community for these losses, including the ida that ISPs could charge all or some of their users a small fee on a monthly basis that each ISP would pay to the creative community as compensation in return for the user’s ability to trade content files without fear of litigation or prosecution. It is worth noting that with very few exceptions, ISPs themselves are not leading the charge to undertake this burden, and it is only within the very recent past hat ISPs have entered into industry wide agreements to support anti-piracy efforts on their networks. Anti-piracy efforts are a long way from ISP licensing…." [ChristianCastle]

How Canada Fought Bad Copyright Law: Showing Why Copyright Law Matters
"You may recall, just about a year ago, there was suddenly a bunch of news over the possibility of Canada introducing its own version of the US's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). To the surprise of both the entertainment industry (who helped craft the law) and the politicians who were pushing it, the opposition to this law was incredibly successful in getting its message out. Starting with calls on various blogs and Facebook groups, kicked off by law professor Michael Geist, the issue became a big one throughout the media. The politicians who promised the entertainment industry that they would pass this law tried to delay the introduction, assuming that the opposition, while loud, was thin and would fade away. They were wrong. The issue continued to get attention, and when the law was finally introduced, the opposition, across the board, was widespread and strong. It wasn't just a fringe issue among "internet activists." It was something that people from all over the economy saw as a fundamental issue worth fighting for." [TechDirt]

China Says: If You Must Infringe On Copyrights, Use Baidu
"Many people have noted over the years that with all of the effort that China has put into its Great Firewall, the country hasn't done much of anything to crack down on unauthorized file sharing. In fact, at times, it's almost seemed to encourage it. So some people were a bit surprised to find out that China's censors tried blocking traffic to various well known BitTorrent sites, such as Mininova, isoHunt and The Pirate Bay. However, what may be most interesting is that rather than blocking them outright, it appears that the system just redirects all that traffic to popular Chinese search engine Baidu.

This would be the same Baidu that first became really popular when China shifted all Google traffic to its site, and also the site that stayed popular because it made it easy to download unauthorized music. This would be the same Baidu that was also recently exposed to be fairly complicit in the music downloads it offers, potentially hosting the content itself through a revolving series of ever-changing domains. So, this hardly seems like an attempt by the Chinese government to crack down on unauthorized file sharing -- but an attempt to drive it all to a local company. It looks like the redirects only lasted for a few days, and are no longer in place -- but if the past is any indication, those redirects may come back at any time." [TechDirt]

Grimsdale's Ire: 31/07/08

Johnson told he can't suspend Met chief, says leaked email

A top aide to the mayor of London has been given legal advice in the past week that Boris Johnson has no power to suspend the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, leaked emails yesterday revealed. The emails - written last Friday and Saturday - concern advice from the most senior lawyer for the Metropolitan police authority. [Guardian]

Met chief challenges Johnson over role

Sir Ian Blair yesterday warned that his post as commissioner of the Metropolitan police was becoming increasingly politicised and that plans by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, to take more control of the force could ultimately be damaging. [Guardian]

Local government: Battle of the Bs as towns adopt identical logos

The troubled history of local council logos has thrown up another spat after rival authorities managed to end up with exactly the same clever piece of design based on one letter. [Guardian]

Arts Council damaged by funding row, report warns

Arts Council England mishandled its last funding round so completely that it ended up receiving "the most damaging publicity in its 60-year history", according to a report which investigated the way the council, after having secured an extra £50m for the arts from the government, bungled its distribution. [Guardian]

Promise of prompt access to family doctors not met

The NHS in England is failing to meet government targets for giving people prompt access to GPs, a Healthcare Commission survey says today. It finds 13% of patients cannot get an appointment to see a family doctor within 48 hours, in breach of undertakings given by ministers four years ago. [Guardian]

Stuart Simpson: We should welcome China's growth, not fear it

Goldman Sachs forecast that by 2050, out of the current G7 nations, only the United States and Japan will be among the world's six largest economies in US dollar terms – and the largest economy will be China, not the United States. The exact date on which China replaces the US as the world's largest economy is uncertain, but barring a major catastrophe it will happen at some point before the middle of the century. China, it seems, is set to be a superpower.

There is much hype and hysteria about this fact. But we need calm heads to see what is really exciting about China's economic miracle. We need to clearly understand the economic reality in the here-and-now compared with what it could be in the future. [Independent]

Multilateralism not dead as a Doha

Like Wimbledon fortnight but without the aesthetic or entertainment value, the annual breakdown of the Doha round of trade talks is becoming a summer ritual. For three successive years, dark warnings of now-or-never and one-last-chance have ended in a fruitless ministerial meeting. It is time to be brave, swallow hard and accept that the Doha round in its present form has failed. [FT]

Click here to read more information on Mr Grimsdale, King Heron and Mobius