Posted: 21st Sep, 2011 By: MarkJ
The UK governments Communications Minister,
Ed Vaizey MP, has today been praised after finally opening up to a meeting with opponents of his efforts to nudge broadband ISPs into
blocking websites; specifically those that are deemed to be facilitating
internet copyright infringement (piracy).
Construction of the controversial
Voluntary Code of Practice between ISPs and Rights Holders has so far
taken place behind closed-doors, which has naturally aroused suspicion. Likewise many opposing civil society and consumer groups have also been excluded from the meetings.
Thankfully all that changed yesterday when Ed Vaizey chaired a unique session that had been organised by Dominque Lazinksi of the Tax Payers Alliance and also featured representatives from the Open Rights Group (ORG), Timico's Trefor Davies, Pirate Party, COADEC, Open Digital Policy, the Featured Artists Coalition and LINX.
Trefor Davies, Chief Technology Officer of Timico UK, said:
"I think Ed Vaizey found the level of debate far more constructive than he had been expecting. The gist was that people were not supporting unlawful behaviour but concerned that the evidence presented was not open to scrutiny.
We should be pursuing other more conventional methods of prevention such as bigger effort to liaise with other countries to take down sites. The concern is that blocking is not only very ineffective but that the collateral damage includes constraints on innovation and freedom of expression.
This is a war that cannot be won. I’m not saying we should encourage state surveillance but this is a scenario where openness of communication makes more sense."
Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group (ORG), said:
"The meeting was not able to consider the rights holders’ proposals at the meeting, because they are not yet published. Consumer Focus and others have seen them: and they remain very worrying, although possibly so badly thought out that they are unlikely to see the light of day.
Nevertheless, we must see these proposals for what they are: a lobbying tactic to keep the pressure on enforcement and control, rather than market failure.
The task for ORG and others interested in user rights and the potential of the digital world has to be to set out another agenda, that works in societies’ interests, rather than just those of IP owners. We will be working with the organisations who attended today to make this happen."
James Firth (Slightly Right of Centre) added:"It was a chance to short-circuit the negative image those lobbying for the Digital Economy Act had carefully crafted around myself and others opposing the Act. Few - if any - were standing for the right to copy music for free.
Civil liberties arguments aren't chiefly about the freedom to copy, but the right to due process under law, and the dangers inherent in any system of censorship. Many of these points have been airbrushed by the pro-control lobbying campaign.
Chatting afterwards the general consensus was positive - there is a real possibility of a follow-up meeting. Whether or not rights holders will come to the table with opponents is a different story!"
At the end of the meeting Ed Vaizey appeared keen to setup a meeting between the group and Rights Holders, although it remains to be seen whether that will happen. Indeed few felt that the discussion itself would result in any dramatic change of course for government policy but it might still influence it
Meanwhile Rights Holders and ISPs will continue to discuss how best to construct and implement a new system of website blocking (further details
here and
here). So far no agreement has been reached, with differences over costs, the legal process and legal coverage being some of the biggest stumbling blocks.