[ORG PM] Parliamentary Briefing 16/11/2012

Fri Nov 16 16:23:59 GMT 2012

Dear Friend,
Welcome to the Open Rights Group's weekly Parliamentary Policy Monitoring
brief. This email is in beta, so please give us any information on what you
would like to see in the brief, and what you would find useful.
Regards!
N.B - this brief will cover the last couple of weeks.

*Official Meetings*
1. Discussed ‘CETA’ with the Intellectual Property Office. We asked about
whether there are provisions similar to Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
in the new proposed agreement. We also advocated a more transparent
approach from the UK Government regarding what's happening and where the UK
stands.
2. We took part in the first meeting of the Midata 'Transmission' working
group at the Department for Business, Industry and Skills. The group is
looking at how consumers' data can best be shared securely. We are
advocating for the interests and consent of consumers to be placed at the
forefront of the design of the Midata scheme.

*Committees*
31/10/2012 – Draft Communications Data Bill Joint Committee questioned
Theresa May. The key questions included:
1) Were CSP’s consulted? Why haven’t intelligence agencies been called to
give evidence?
2) Why is the bill so wide in scope even though the Home Office gave
assurances that it will address a narrow set of issues?
3) Confirming whether the bill would not be introduced in the current
Parliamentary Session.
Further meetings held on 08/11/12 and 13/11/12, and then 21/11/2012 (all
private sessions).
Links - ORG Wiki<http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Communications_Data_Bill>
          Transcript of meeting
<http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/communications-data/DCD%20Bill%2031-10-12%20subbed%20HVE%20Final%20transcript.pdf>

Upcoming meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 20/11/2012.
This will be an evidence session into support for the creative industries
and could cover issues such as copyright infringement.

*Legislation*
*Government Bills*
14/11/2012 – Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Bill Second Reading
Information of the reading, including a transcript, can be found on the ORG
Wiki<http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Enterprise_and_Regulatory_Reform_Bill>
The text of the reading can be found on the Parliament
website<http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/121114-0001.htm#12111438000739>

The bill has been submitted to a Grand Committee.
The Bill has provisions to enable the licensing of orphan works, enables
extended collective licensing, and would create new backstop powers
backstop powers to regulate collecting societies by statutory code, should
they fail to adopt suitable voluntary codes.
With regard to the Midata proposals, the Government announced its intention
to bring forward an amendment to the Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Bill to
confer a power to make regulations to ensure that customers are (at their
request) given access in portable electronic form to their
transaction/consumption data. (See Column 1519 of thesecond
reading<http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/121114-0001.htm#12111438000739>
)
The Government response to the Midata consultation will be published early
next week, will be available
here<http://www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations/category/closedwithresponse>
.
*
*
*Private Member’s Bills*
09/11/2012 - Online Safety Bill Second Reading
Baroness Howe, who introduced the bill spoke of the dangers facing children
on the internet, and suggested the bill would put more pressure of key
internet actors to increase protective measures.
ORG Wiki <http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Online_Safety_Bill>

13/11/2012 – Suicide (Prevention) Bill First Reading
The bill was presented by William McCrea.
Transcript of the Frist
Reading<http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm121113/debtext/121113-0002.htm#12111384000002>
The second reading of the bill is scheduled for January 2013.
Links - ORG Wiki<http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Suicide_(Prevention)_Bill>
           Parliament UK - Suicide (Prevention) Bill
website<http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2012-13/suicideprevention.html>

*International developments*
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) met in Baku, Azerbaijan on 6-9 November
2012. The theme of the seventh annual conference was ‘Internet Governance
for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development’. Some of the
conference covered issues such as copyright laws and online privacy.
Links – ORG Wiki <http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/IGF>
           Internet Governance Forum (IGF) <http://www.intgovforum.org/cms>

In December 2012 the UN ITU will meet in Dubai for a conference. Critics of
the organisations activities have suggested that this meeting could
eventually afford governments the power to clamp down on internet access.
This could have a dramatic effect.
Links - ORG Wiki <http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ITU>
           UN ITU <http://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx>

The WIPO met in October (scheduled to meet again on 19/11/2012) to draft
treaty that grants wider access to copyrighted materials for individuals
with disabilities.
The position of the EU, and consequently UK, has been attacked over its
reluctance to part from the Berne Convention and the 3-stage process. Key
criticisms include can be found on the wiki, and also on KEI.
The British Copyright Council (BCC) published a short paper after the
October meetings, detailed it’s stance on the issue. The paper can be found
here<http://www.britishcopyright.org/assets/documents/2012/10/BCC_position_on_VIPs161012.pdf>

Links - ORG Wiki - WIPO <http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/WIPO>
           ORG Wiki -
BCC<http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/British_Copyright_Council>
           Knowledge Ecology International <http://keionline.org/>

Ministerial Talks are scheduled for the 20th of November regarding the
Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA). The talks are between Canadian
International Trade Minister Ed Fast, the Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz,
and European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. The agreement itself
includes issues over copyrights. Critics argue that the section on
intellectual property could be identical to the clauses incorporated into
the failed ACTA proposal.
Links - ORG Wiki - CETA <http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/CETA>
          ORG Wiki - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement<http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement_2011>

*Internet Companies*
Google has been in the news for a couple of reasons.
1. Google have pledged to downgrade sites guilty of piracy. This will be
followed by a meeting before Christmas between Google, the Government and
ISP’s to discuss the issue of online privacy. More on this is
available here<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/05/google-downgrade-piracy-sites-review>
.
2. Google released its 2012 Transparency
Report<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/nov/13/google-transparency-report>
.
Other links - ORG Wiki - Google<http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Google>

*ORG Contact Details*
Communications Data Bill campaign - Javier Ruiz Javier at openrightsgroup.org
Copyright & Government Consultations - Peter Bradwell
peter at openrightsgroup.org
Executive Director - Jim Killock jim at openrightsgroup.org
Parliamentary monitoring - Ricky Shah -
parliamentary.monitoring at openrightsgroup.org
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