British government promises to reform copyright law.

Originally posted 08/05/2011 on lubbockonline.com

Timothy B. Lee reports on Ars Technica that the British government has pledged to make significant changes in UK copyright law.

The change is in part due to an independent report to the UK Prime Minister. The report is 130 pages, but it boils down to this: Copyright policy in the UK has been driven more by lobbyists than by any real evidence. Based on the report the UK is looking at allowing DVD ripping for personal use and making it impossible to take away rights by removing them using contracts - including EULA's on software and music.

It looks like the UK is serious about reforming copyright law to be something closer to the original intent - allow creators exclusive right to profit from their creations for limited time before allowing others freedom to adapt, modify and build on them, thereby encouraging innovation. The current system - one pushed by special interests such as the RIAA and MPAA in the US - creates hurdles and places barriers on innovation by extending copyright protections so far from the original creation that the creator may have died of natural causes after a long life. Hopefully the British government is only the first to see the benefits in reforming copyright law. It's in their own best interest.

The actual report to the Prime Minister is here (PDF)

Britian proposes allowing site takedowns with just complaint

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/10/30/uk-government-make-isps-responsible-for-third-party-content-published-online.html

The U.S. wants to wiretap the internet. The UK wants to make it easy to get 3rd party content removed. MarkJ reports on ISPreview.com that:

The UK governments Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey, has ominously proposed that broadband ISPs could introduce a new Mediation Service that would allow them the freedom to censor third party content on the internet, without court intervention, in response to little more than a public complaint.

The proposal is supposed to be for the benefit of regular citizens, but it is easy to imagine the abuse by corporations and organizations (RIAA, MPAA, et al) who would use it as a club to attempt to force consumers to conform to industry ideas of how things should be.

It is sad that proposals to help protect citizens must be either be so carefully crafted and limited almost to the point of uselessness or risk abuse that does more harm than not having legislation would have.