Internet heroes and villains

ISPA has announced its heroes and villains short list. Winners announced at the UK Internet Industry Awards on July 9. Here's the list:

Internet Hero Finalists

Featured Artists Coalition - "For recognising publicly that the focus of music companies should be the development of new business models for distributing content online rather than attempting to pass responsibility to ISPs to take action against users"
Community Broadband Network - "For their relentless pursuit and support for next generation access at grass roots level"
European Parliament - "For rejecting by a significant majority an amendment to the Telecom Package designed to allow disconnection of users' Internet connections for alleged copyright infringement without direct judicial oversight"
Lord Carter - "For his attempt to bring a holistic view to government policy across the communications spectrum"
Thomas Gensemer - "For showcasing the enormous power of the Internet in leading Barack Obama's online presidential campaign"

Internet Villain Finalists

Baroness Vadera - "For excluding a number of ISPs and Rights Holders in agreeing a Memorandum of Understanding that was exclusive and ineffective in progressing relations between the two industries"
European Parliament - "For supporting an amendment to the Telecom Package on cookies which could yet bring the Internet to a standstill"
President Nicolas Sarkozy - "For his continued commitment to the HADOPI law, which advocates a system of graduated response, despite repeated arguments suggesting the law is disproportionate from a number of important groups including the European Parliament"
Stephen Conroy and the Australian Government - "For continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition"

From ThinkBroadband.

Legislating on future online content

I attended an ISPA Legal Forum at lawyers Clifford Chance yesterday at which Daniel Sanderson, a partner at Clifford Chance, Steve Rowan, Deputy Director, International Policy Directorate, IPO (Intellectual Property Office) and the Director of Legal & Regulatory at Orange, Simon Persoff, spoke in depth about the forthcoming Digital Britain report, and the likely issues that will surround a Digital Rights Agency. Fascinating stuff: in the ongoing attempts to curb "file sharing" it is currently the ISPs that are in the firing line. Many questions were raised: will the ISPs be deluged by Rights Holders' "robots" sending out "infringement violation" messages constantly? What will constitute a "serious consumer infringement"? Will the ISPs be disadvantaged in negotiations with Rights Holders when they attempt to build business deals that involve access and content? Also, how is P2P going to be defined? By my estimation there are at least 29 ways to file share, it is not simply a matter of BitTorrent. Who will pay the legal bills? And will we see 10 million people criminalized?

Trefor Davies, tech director at Timico, blogged:

As a footnote to yesterday’s posts from the ISPA Legal Forum one of the things to have stuck in my mind is that consumers are not being consulted in any part of the discussion surrounding P2P filesharing. Whilst the inter industry argument rages we are in danger of losing out on some basic human rights.

Check out Trefor's other notes on the Forum.


NB. Update: the lawyers Pinsent Mason reported yesterday that:

The Government plans a tenfold increase in the penalties for criminal breaches of intellectual property law. Infringement of IP laws will be punishable by fines of up to £50,000 rather than the current £5,000, according to Government plans.

The measures, though, do not involve increasing the possible jail sentences for online infringement as proposed by 2006's Gowers Review of Intellectual Property.

Link to consultation document: here.

So no one database...

The Home Office will... ask communications companies - from internet service providers to mobile phone networks - to extend the range of information they currently hold on their subscribers and organise it so that it can be better used by the police, MI5 and other public bodies investigating crime and terrorism.

"What we are talking about is who is at one end [of a communication] and who is at the other - and how they are communicating."


Jacqui Smith on new plans for monitoring the Internet, because doing nothing is 'not an option'.

Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single government-run database.

From the BBC.

Closing Down ISPs, some thoughts

From Techdirt.

Lynch mob justice, even when well meaning, can inflict collateral damage and occasionally pick the wrong targets leading to significant damage with little recourse.

Some have equated these types of actions with a Neighborhood Watch program - good intentioned folks driving off negative influences. But the key difference is the lack of legal authority and due process.