[SWLUG] Fwd: URGENT - UK law on copyright is being tightened against the public's interests

[Neil Jones]

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Hi,


URGENT!

  * please forward *    * please forward *    * please forward *


REPSONSES REQUIRED TO GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION ON
AMENDING THE COPYRIGHT LAWS TO PREPARE FOR THE
"INFORMATION AGE"


The Patent Office, on behalf of the government, have brought forward
 proposals to change the UK law on copyright. This has serious impacts on the
 way the public and journalists are allowed to use copyright information.

There is a detailed briefing on this issue at:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/opendir/users_report.html

The consultation paper, published jointly by the UK Department of Trade and
Industry and the UK Patent Office, is located online at:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/consultations/eccopyright/index.htm

Responses are required by Thursday, October 31st


We need as many people as possible to complain about these proposals in order
to raise the political profile - otherwise we risk these proposals being
quickly waived through Parliament just before Christmas - along with the
large amounts of other legislation that get pushed through the House at this
time.

Comments may be sent by:

* snail-mail to Teresa Arnesen, Copyright Directorate, The Patent Office,
Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DP

* e-mail to copyright at patent.gov.uk

* fax to 020 7596 6526/6527

...so you have lots of options for sending a response.

All help on this matter is greatly appreciated.


In brief....

The law on copyright in the UK is shortly to be revised, and these revisions
could introduce wide-ranging changes to the way we have traditionally
accessed and used information and media/multimedia recordings.

The main points of the proposed scheme of amendment, proposed by the Patent
Office, are:

* Amendments to the rules on 'fair dealing' could damage the personal use of
material, and potentially restrict investigative reports from accessing and
using unpublished reports as part of their work, and also prevents local
organisations for raising money at events where they play recorded music.

* The regulation of 'digital rights management' poses a serious risk to
privacy and personal information due to the poor interaction of controls over
the automated collection of sensitive personal data.

* The proposals to make copyright infringement a criminal offence require a
means for people to take action against unfounded threats of action in order
to prevent the threat of legal action being used as a method of intimidation.

* The proposals to allow action for infringement against intermediaries, like
Internet Service Providers, provide a means for rights holders to threaten or
take action against a 'soft target' to remove material online rather than
against the person allegedly committing the infringement.

The online briefing looks at the implications of these changes. It also
explains the process for objection to these changes -- which must be made by
October 31st 2002.



Thanks for your help


Paul Mobbs
<mobbsey at gn.apc.org>


- - --
- - -------------------

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for
this party nor against the other but we are for justice and mercy and
truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation,
and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity
with God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burroughs, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')


Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations,
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864

email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey.html
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/keylist.html

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-- 
--
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve