Drawing the strings together

LAW - 300 politicians

300 is about the majority for passing legislation that affects us all. Including legislation about copyright and the internet.

In UK a bill "Digital Economy Act" very much influenced by global media conglomerates, was rushed through parliament without adequate debate. It needs to be rescinded and re-thoughtout completely. It is the thin edge of the wedge to control the wonderful, open, free, global, new communication tool we have, the internet.

But that really is not the major issue, which is the total revision of copyright to fit into today's global world. An issue which politicians are not facing up to.

STUDIOS - 10 conglomerates
These industries are a pain. They have a business model - window release of movies being the worst - which is living in the past. They have no case to answer when they claim that Bit Torrent (the main channels through which films are downloaded) as it has been shown by investigations of the most respected kind that movie sale have not been influenced by pirate downloading.

In fact the studios have the solution to downloading right in their own hands. In a global market place if a major new film is released in USA but not in UK or elsewhere, people are going to want to watch it, and then peaople are going to download it. So if they abandon the window release and provide global legal access to new movies the amount of pirating will go down.

PUBLIC- 2-3 billion people

And then there are us, the people. We are being hit by blunt instruments, devised by interested parties, such things as the USA SOPA bill (now defeated) and the ACTA treaty (to hopefully be voted down by the European Parliament in June, even if the text has been signed by many local governments including UK with no debate).

It is very, very clear that we the people do not want any interference in the freedom to speak over the internet. Of course there are things we should not say, like inducement to terrorism, or child pornography, or things we should not do like copying music or films illegally. But this is no reason to interfere with free speech on the internet.

Last weekend there were demonstrations across Europe, in about 200 cities, against the ACTA treaty. A few reluctant politicians, who now have egg on their faces, are staring to change their ideas and say that perhaps ACTA is not a well thought out and democratic treaty - it is not of course, as it was drafted by a closed committee with strong influence from the media industry, but little or no public consultation. It was agreed behind closed doors, now they want us to vote for it!

CONCLUSION 1 − 2 − 3

Let's discuss and redefine copyright, so that it protects artists and ensures them a proper and due income. See my earlier copyright proposals.

Let's tell the media moguls in no uncertain terms that they have to change. Not supporting an old business model, they have to change, offering global, legal access to works, not building a business model based on 100 year old technology (the 35mm film) and controlling the release of works in windows to maximise their profits, not to the benefit the creators.

Let's make sure we all speak with the same voice, we the people do not want any interference with the open, global network, the internet.