EU Public Affairs Monitor - 30/12/08

Choruss: legal file sharing on campus 11th December 2008
"The plan to provide US students with compulsory flat-fee music finally has a name, it emerged this week. Choruss LLC will provide participating universities with a replacement for their current subscription services such as Rhapsody, and has the backing of the the EFF and the tacit support of the RIAA. That alone indicates the magnitude of the initiative. When have those two lobbying groups ever agreed on music policy?

This, the worst kept secret in the music business, leaked out in April, when Jim Griffin confirmed he had been engaged by Warner Music to seek deals that would help end the litigation strategy against students, and replace it with a steady pool of income for the rights holders. (Griffin has spent a decade campaigning to "monetize the anarchy" of digital music - see our 2004 interview)." [TheRegister]

Has Boston University Left Its Safe Harbor and Become Liable for Students' Piracy? 12. 2.2008
"Defenders of the most egregious, blatant forms of online copyright piracy often suffer from what could be called Wile-E.-Coyote syndrome: They can become so fixated on throttling the roadrunner of copyright protection that they fail to notice that they have just run off a cliff and begun plunging downward.

For example, a federal judge has reportedly held that Boston University (BU) is such an incompetent internet-access provider that it cannot disclose the identities of allegedly infringing users of its network. In London-Sire Records, Inc. v. Does 1-4, Judge Gertner's recent order granted BU's "Motion to Quash" because "[BU] has adequately demonstrated that it is not able to identify the alleged infringers with a reasonable degree of technical certainty."

Continue reading Has Boston University Left Its Safe Harbor and Become Liable for Students' Piracy? . . ."

New Op-Ed December 30, 2008
"Rick Carnes and I co-wrote an op-ed on ISP music licensing (as exemplified by the Choruss operation) for Content Agenda that might be of interest.

http://www.contentagenda.com/article/CA6625534.html?industryid=45173t

Coolfer published a couple comments on the op-ed. Let it be known that I dig Glenn and Coolfer and I'm just clarifying a couple things he mentioned (also just speaking for myself here and not for my co-author).

One of the points we made is that an unlimited download service at below market rates undermines the investment that legitimate services have spent and committed. (I refuse to use "all you can eat" to describe these services as that phrase grates on me as comparing music to, let's say, a potato, which I won't do.) The point (which I made in more detail in a recent article for the ABA) is that users are already paying for the very Internet connection they use to buy their music from legitimate services. If you tell them that they only need to pay $5 a month more for all the music they want from what were once illegal "services"--well, I think you see where that goes. The idea seems to be that students could get rid of their Rhapsody accounts, which appears to make EFF very happy." [MusicTechPolicy]

Don't Make Kids Online Crooks December 29, 2008 Monday
"Seventy-five years ago, Prohibition ended. Just 13 years after launching an extraordinary experiment in social reform, the nation recognized that the battle against "intoxicating liquors" had failed. Organized crime had exploded. Civil rights had been weakened. And an enormous number of ordinary Americans had become "criminals" as they found ways to evade, and profit from the evasion of, this hopeless law.

We're about a decade into our own hopeless war of prohibition, this one against "peer-to-peer piracy." The copyright industry has used every legal means within its reach (and some that may not be so legal) to stop Internet "pirates" from "sharing" copyrighted content without permission. These "copyright wars"--what the late Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, called his own "terrorist war" in which apparently the "terrorists" are our kids--have consumed an ever growing amount of legal resources. The Recording Industry Association of America alone has sued tens of thousands of individuals. These suits allege millions of dollars in damages. And schools across the nation have adopted strict policies to block activity that the Supreme Court in 2005 declared presumptively illegal." [ContentAgenda]

In The Loop: 29/07/08

Stolen UK passports worth £2.5m

The Foreign Office admitted a serious breach of security when a van carrying the new passports destined for British embassies overseas was hijacked a short distance from the factory that made them.

3M Security Printing and Systems, one of the biggest security printers in the UK and at the heart of government plans to introduce biometric passports was responsible for the delivery. [Guardian]

Youth crime: how 982 children will save us all £300m

Excellent article by Andrew Sparrow on the importance of improving the quality of youth’s lives rather than the capacity of prisons. [Guardian]

I replied to the thread, writing:

Many thanks for trying to connect the dots of policy making and trying to jog peoples minds about what long-term decision-making looks like.

I wish the people in charge saw that pulling the weeds from the root is a more effective than merely pruning the leaves.

Too many people talk about the need to increase prison places to fit an ever growing population but they rarely raise the need to spend money on making sure that youths dont get to the stage where they are caged before they are even adults.

I heard a figure saying that to convict somebody costs around £120,000 and £80,000 per year to keep a person incarcerated. Now why havent frothing right wing groups such as the Taxpayer Alliance not directed their venom at such subjects of criticism? It seems to me that even one person bypassing prison through whatever intervention could allow for tax money to be spent on more productive things. Improved housing? New school facilities? New railways or roads? Less taxes? An extra trident missile? Or maybe punishment, prevention and enforcement is just too profitable?

Ryanair: still cheap, but less and less appealing

Gwyn Topham comments on the declining profitability of Ryanair. [Guardian]

Click here for an introduction to Mr Grimsdale, King Heron and Mobius

Grimsdale's Ire: 29/07/08

Minister calls for more police in schools

New measures to deal with violent spate of shirts not being tucked in [Guardian]

Appeal court clamps down on use of painful restraint in child jails

The use of painful physical restraint to maintain discipline in privately run child jails has been outlawed by the court of appeal as an infringement of young people's fundamental human rights. [Guardian]

It's too early to dismiss all these new schools as mediocre

John Sorrell, chair of Cabe optimistically defends the Government's criticised £35bn school-building programme. I'm hoping for some good CIF mud slinging….[Guardian]

Can the unions save Labour?

Gregor Gall provides an even-handed analysis of the Warwick II agreement. [Guardian]

Daniel Howden: The world's most important political project

A reminder of the importance of Turkey and the fragility of the nation at this moment in time. [Independent]

Click here for an introduction to Mr Grimsdale, King Heron and Mobius