Official Meetings
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== Official Meetings ==
== Official Meetings ==
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==NSA and GCHQ updates==
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Jim Killock met with the [http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ Citizen
'
s Advice Bureau]. He also gave an interview with Al Jazeera to discuss ORG
'
s new campaign
[
https://www
.
dontspyonus.org.uk/org Don
'
t Spy on Us].
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''
See our
[
[Guardian and Snowden revelations 2013|full list of the Guardian and Snowden’s revelations]]
.'
'
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== Consultations and departments ==
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Peter Bradwell spoke at the UK
[[
Internet Governance Forum
]]
about child online protection.
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''A full list of open consultations and Parliamentary events can be found on our
[[
Events|Events
]]
''
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== Committees ==
== Committees ==
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Deadline for submission is Monday 31 March. Instructions and submission forms can be found on their [http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news/140207-big-data-call-for-evidence/ website].
Deadline for submission is Monday 31 March. Instructions and submission forms can be found on their [http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news/140207-big-data-call-for-evidence/ website].
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==
Government Bills
==
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==
Debates and questions
==
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==
Private Members Bills
==
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==
=Westminster Hall debate on "Supporting the Digital Economy"=
==
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== Debates
and
questions ==
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Thursday saw a debate in Westminster Hall discussing the topic "Supporting the Digital Economy". During the debate, the Vice-chair of the All-Party Intellectual Property Group, [[John Whittingdale MP]] suggested an alternative root to dealing with the delayed [[Digital Economy Act 2010]]. The Digital Economy Act is in effect, but there are still problems with getting statutory instruments to implement it. He suggested that when dealing with internet users who illegally share copyrighted material, a voluntary solution from [[ISP| ISPs]]
and
rights owners be used instead of mandatory legislation. He [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140213/halltext/140213h0001.htm#140213h0001.htm_spnew72 said] "A voluntary copyright alert programme would involve an agreement between the rights owners and the ISPs that there would be a system through which letters were issued to those identified as illegally downloading."
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Westminster Hall debates are informal debates that give the opportunity to MPs to discuss important matters in more depth.
== International Developments ==
== International Developments ==
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===
Bing in
US
is censoring results
for
Chinese searches
===
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===US
Senator launches petition to issue pardon
for
Edward Snowden
===
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The search engine
[
[Bing]] appears to be censoring results for terms written in Chinese
.
The search engine, which also operates all searches for [[Yahoo
]
], displays different results
for
'controversial' terms when typed in Chinese and when typed in English
.
The Guardian
[http://
www.theguardian
.com/
technology
/
2014/feb
/
11
/
bing
-
censors
-
chinese
-
language
-
search
-
results reports
]
that terms like 'Dalai Lama'
,
when searched for using Chinese characters
,
bring results from Chinese state television
and the
country's version
of
Wikipedia, [http://en
.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Baike Baidu Baike]. On the other hand
,
a search in English characters will display photos and links to
the
Dalai Lama's website
.
+
Senator Ron Paul has started a
[
https://campaign
.
ronpaulchannel.com/snowden/petition/ petition
]
demanding a pardon
for
Edward Snowden
.
In a statement he
[http://
thehill
.com/
blogs
/
blog-briefing-room
/
news
/
198325
-
ron
-
paul
-
launches
-
clemency
-
for-snowden-petititon said
]
“Edward Snowden sacrificed his livelihood
,
citizenship
, and
freedom by exposing
the
disturbing scope
of
the NSA’s worldwide spying program
.
Thanks to one man’s courageous actions
,
Americans know about
the
truly egregious ways their government is spying on them”
.
−
However, in response, Bing's senior director [http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/uk
-
microsoft-bing-censorship-idUKBREA1B0CS20140212 said] the different search results were attributed to a technical error which "triggered an incorrect results removal notification for some searches noted in the report but the results themselves are and were unaltered outside of China".
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===Science channel on YouTube facing termination after DMCA issued by film
-
makers===
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===Science channel on YouTube to be terminated after DMCA issued by film-makers===
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A popular [[YouTube]] channel featuring 'science facts' and 'sceptical/debunking' videos,
may
be [http://mylespower.co.uk/ permanently removed] from the site and the creator of the channel will be barred from opening a new account. The decision comes after two Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down requests were issued by the creators of the film "House of Numbers". The DMCA is an American law that implements the two copyright treaties of the [[United Nations| United Nation's]] [[World Intellectual Property Organisation]].
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+
−
A popular [[YouTube]] channel featuring 'science facts' and 'sceptical/debunking' videos,
will
be [http://mylespower.co.uk/ permanently removed] from the site and the creator of the channel will be barred from opening a new account. The decision comes after two Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down requests were issued by the creators of the film "House of Numbers". The DMCA is an American law that implements the two copyright treaties of the [[United Nations| United Nation's]] [[World Intellectual Property Organisation]].
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The film aims to explore the issues of HIV and has been criticised by [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/sep/26/ben-goldacre-bad-science-aids doctors] ([http://www.houseofnumbers.org/Scientists_Denounce_HON.html including those interviewed]) as misrepresenting their views and the facts.
The film aims to explore the issues of HIV and has been criticised by [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/sep/26/ben-goldacre-bad-science-aids doctors] ([http://www.houseofnumbers.org/Scientists_Denounce_HON.html including those interviewed]) as misrepresenting their views and the facts.
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== European Union ==
== European Union ==
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===European
Commission director of digital agenda wants ISPs to have more responsibility
in
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===European
court finds that hyperlinks do not constitute copyright infringement,
in
cases of freely available materials===
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"ISPs need to feel more responsible than they do today not just for the enforcement
of
the law, but also for the preservation
of
values
.
"
+
The [[European Court
of
Justice|European Court
of
Justice (ECJ)]] [http://torrentfreak.com/hyperlinking-is-not-copyright-infringement-eu-court-rules-140213/ ruled], in a new case, that featuring hyperlinks on websites does not constitute copyright infringement
.
−
http://
www
.
pcadvisor
.
co.uk
/
news
/
internet/3286432/senior-eu-official-wants-isps-to-safeguard-public-values
/
+
The case was brought to the ECJ from the Swedish Court of the Appeal. It involved a website that indexed links to articles freely available on the internet. Some journalists, whose articles were linked to, felt they deserved reimbursement from the indexing site. However, the ECJ ruled, they didn't owe any reimbursement, as the site was not 'creating a new audience', since the articles were freely available at the original source. In the words of the [
http://
curia
.
europa
.
eu
/
juris
/
document
/
document.jsf?text=&docid=147847&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=7778 ruling]:
+
:"In the circumstances of this case, it must be observed that making available the works concerned by means of a clickable link, such as that in the main proceedings, does not lead to the works in question being communicated to a new public” “Therefore, since there is no new public, the authorization of the copyright holders is not required for a communication to the public such as that in the main proceedings."
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However, it should be noted the ruling permits hyperlinks as long as it doesn't offer access of copyrighted material to a 'new public'. The ruling defines 'new public' as those who wouldn't have access to the original material, by the original creators, due to subscriber restrictions.
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== Law and Legal Cases ==
===Decision by German court finds domain registrar responsible for website's copyright infringement===
===Decision by German court finds domain registrar responsible for website's copyright infringement===
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The registrar's general counsel, Volker Gerimann, [http://www.pcworld.com/article/2095740/german-court-finds-domain-registrar-liable-for-torrent-sites-copyright-infringement.html said] of the verdict "If left unchallenged, this decision would constitute an undue expansion of the legal obligations of each registrar based in Germany, endangering the entire business model of registering domain names or performing DNS addressing for third parties".
The registrar's general counsel, Volker Gerimann, [http://www.pcworld.com/article/2095740/german-court-finds-domain-registrar-liable-for-torrent-sites-copyright-infringement.html said] of the verdict "If left unchallenged, this decision would constitute an undue expansion of the legal obligations of each registrar based in Germany, endangering the entire business model of registering domain names or performing DNS addressing for third parties".
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== Devolved Matters ==
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== Law and Legal Cases ==
==Political Parties==
==Political Parties==
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==Commercial Stakeholders==
==Commercial Stakeholders==
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===Representatives from UK adult content industry launch site to educate on appropriate filters===
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Groups of the UK's adult content industry (and two age verification companies), have [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/13/uk-pornographers-isp-filters banded] together to raise awareness about the faulty filtering services, offered by the five main [[ISP|ISPs]]. They argue the new filtering systems do not work, wrongly filter sex-education sites, as well as other educational websites, and fail to filter out adult content. They [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/uk-pornographers-launch-new-site-in-response-to-overblocking-internet-filters-9127559.html argue] “There are better filters available than those offered by the ISPs which are also less prone to overblocking.”
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Through the launch of a site called [http://www.xxxaware.co.uk/| xxxaware.co.uk], they aim to educate parents of the importance of online protection from inappropriate content, while also protecting legitimate content.
== ORG Media coverage ==
== ORG Media coverage ==