On January 18 many websites have gone, or will go, on strike voluntarily[1] to demonstrate against the threat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) bills, pending US legislation that would restrict freedom of speech, negatively impact economies, and degrade internet security. Participation in the strike has been confirmed by Wikipedia[2], Reddit, Mozilla, and Free Software Foundation, among others. Many organizations, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have expressed grave concerns over the bills[3].
Category: Copyright
Copyright law and reform, both commercial and non-commercial
The Attorney-General’s Department last year claimed that no minutes exist of a clandestine meeting between the Department, ISPs and content industry representatives to discuss ‘solutions’ to online file-sharing.[1]
In heavily redacted documents released last month to Rodney Serkowski, former President of Pirate Party Australia, eight pages were censored. The notice reads “the following eight pages […] are hand written notes taken by an officer of the Attorney-General’s Department of the 23 September 2011 meeting. These notes are exempt pursuant to s47C.”[2]
Pirate Party Australia fails to understand why the Attorney-General’s Department felt it necessary to claim no minutes were taken.
UK Judge Quentin Purdy has approved an extradition request to have a student face charges in the United States. Pirate Party Australia is concerned that such precedents will pave the way for similar cases where Australians may be extradited and tried in the US court system.
“By supporting the baseless US extradition case against Richard O’Dwyer today at Westminster Magistrates Court, the judge Judge Quentin Purdy has failed to inject the much needed shot of rationality into the insanity of the UK-US extradition arrangements we had all hoped for. The Sheffield student is accused of infringing copyright by setting up the popular Netherlands-hosted website TV Shack,” said Loz Kaye, Leader of Pirate Party UK, in a press release yesterday[1].
Pirate Party Australia are still deeply dissatisfied with the lack of consumer involvement in talks held by the Attorney-General’s Department with ISPs and content rights holders.
The talks that occurred on the 23rd of September last year deliberately excluded consumers from any negotiations or deliberations, as documents released under the Freedom of Information Act in December reveal. The documents frequently reference the importance of the consumer, and yet indicate a continual push for an industry-based solution. “Relevant consumer groups [will be consulted] once industry discussions have reached an appropriate stage”[1] says one document.
The documents also indicate that consumers are not considered key-stakeholders in regards to online copyright infringement, and yet urge industry to consider the consumer interests.