Shock, awe: British government agrees that copyright has gone too far

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/the-british-government-has-endorsed.ars

by shawndumas • 15 years ago

214 23 15 years ago

gonehome• 15 years ago

It looks like they're enabling something like fair use and realizing that the way orphan publications are handled doesn't make any sense. Not very exciting really considering these are regulations that are widely ignored by people who actually use any technology anyway.

tejaswiy• 15 years ago

Since there was a talk about abolishing patents etc. from the US system, I had my hopes up for a few seconds that England might've picked some of those ideals up. Looks like that isn't the acse. They're actually acting now on a study commissioned in 2006!

_b8r03• 15 years ago

Sorry to be a little picky but it's not England, it's the United Kingdom. Of all of the member nations of the United Kingdom, England is the only one unrepresented in government. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all have devolved governments of their own. England has no such government.

The sad fact is that the British parliament could pass a law, which can then be overturned in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland leaving England screwed. Furthermore, MPs from those countries all get to vote in the British parliament, then their devolved equivalents can vote against it locally (except in England as there's no English parliament). This happened most recently with tuition fees but can apply to almost anything.

ldar15• 15 years ago

"Dear Big Media, Lately we havent received enough campaign funding. We have made polite inquiries before, but they have gone unanswered. We're trying really hard to keep a hold on these pesky liberals, but they are doing a really good job on gaining seats. Here's our idea for new copyright laws. What do you think? Ideas / monetary contributions to the usual accounts. Also, we've just lost the Murdoch account so we need some of our other contributors to step up. Thanks, The Conservative Party"

josephcooney2• 15 years ago

I think you're confusing the UK with the USA...or perhaps I'm just naive.

cabalamat3• 15 years ago

I don't know whether you're naive or not. I do know that in 2010Q3, Universal Music was the Conservative Party's largest corporate donor: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/party-finance/party-fi...

earnubs• 15 years ago

It's hard to argue with a comment so lacking in substance.

moultano• 15 years ago

The grandparent is a good example I think sarcasm should be verboten on any serious discussion forum. It's impossible to argue with because it shields the wielder from having to make an actual clearly stated argument.

hactually• 15 years ago

Dear Conservative Party,

We already bought off the Labour party to get the Digital Economy Act passed so we're a bit short at the moment. Just to be clear we're not happy with those rascally LibDems one jot - liberal policies? In my government?

Best, Big Media

lm2s• 15 years ago

Now imagine if they had the Americafuckyeah patent system...

omarqureshi• 15 years ago

Actually, British patent law used to be super fucking screwy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Monopolies

Shock, awe: British government agrees that copyright has gone too far

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