Don’t Let Mandelson Disconnect Your Internet

Copyright infringement through filesharing is illegal and the Government is right to tackle the issue.

But the proposals to deter illegal filesharing announced by Lord Mandelson in September are wrong in principle and won’t work in practice.

Don’t Disconnect Us is a campaign group initiated by TalkTalk which is opposed to the measures proposed by Lord Mandelson.

Here you can find out why we’re so worried, hear what others who share our view say, register your support for our campaign (or tell us why we’re wrong) and contribute to the debate.'

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BT Boss Condemns Government Piracy Measures

BT chief executive Ian Livingstone has joined a group of industry executives and high profile figures – from organisations including Orange, Virgin Media, Google and the Open Rights Group – in writing an open letter to the Financial Times, urging that changes be made to the Digital Economy Bill.

The letter criticises the most recent amendment to the Bill – Amendment 120A – which would enable courts to issue an injunction against any website accused of hosting a “substantial proportion” of material that infringes copyright. This could ultimately result in sites such as YouTube being forced offline.

“This amendment not only significantly changes the injunctions procedure in the UK but will lead to an increase in Internet service providers blocking websites accused of illegally hosting copyrighted material without cases even reaching a judge,” the letter warned. “The amendment seeks to address the legitimate concerns of rights-holders but would have unintended consequences that far outweigh any benefits it could bring".'

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Anti-Piracy Agency's Logo Broke Copyright

The French government's web police force – called Hadopi – was set up to stop piracy and clamp down on illegal downloaders.

The agency's logo was unveiled this by French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand, who said that Hadopi "finally had a face".

But within hours of its launch, it was forced to apologise for using a typeface without permission that belonged to France Telecom.'

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Stealth Treaty Seeks Strict Controls Over Internet

A sweeping international treaty to regulate how knowledge and creativity may flow on the Internet is now being negotiated. Haven’t heard of it? Funny thing, that’s exactly what the backers of the treaty want. The film, music, publishing and information industries don’t want a public debate about the issues or an open debate in Congress. So they have been working hand-in-glove with the U.S. Trade Representative to move U.S. policymaking offshore and throw a dark cloak of secrecy around everything. The next stop: draconian penalties for anyone who is accused of violating copyright law.'

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Associated Press will Sell You a License to Quote the Public Domain

The Associated Press -- which thinks you owe it a license fee if you quote more than four words from one of its articles -- doesn't even care if the words actually came from its article. They'll charge you anyway, even if you're quoting from the public domain.

I picked a random AP article and went to their "reuse options" site. Then, when they asked what I wanted to quote, I punched in Thomas Jefferson's famous argument against copyright. Their license fee: $12 for an educational 26-word quote. FROM THE PUBLIC FREAKING DOMAIN, and obviously, obviously not from the AP article. But the AP is too busy trying to squeeze the last few cents out of a dying business model to care about little things like free speech or the law.

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