Press release archive for January 2012

Yesterday the European Union, the UK and over 20 other countries signed the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA is an international treaty, disguised as a trade agreement, whose purpose is to increase and harmonise copyright and trademark enforcement. Many of the goals of ACTA are similar to SOPA and PIPA - proposed laws which the US congress recently abandoned following a huge outcry. ACTA is, if anything, even more objectionable.

Yesterday Pirates de Catalunya (PP-Cat) announced a collective civil action in Spain against the FBI. 

PP-Cat believes that legitimate users of Megaupload who suffered from the closure of the site and seizure of files containing personal information may have legal recourse.  PP-Cat says that the FBI may have violated Articles 197 and 198 of the Spanish Penal Code by misappropriating personal data.

Andrew Crossley of ACS:law has been suspended for two years and ordered to pay £76,000 in costs after admitting six charges at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing on Monday.

Loz Kaye – Pirate Party UK Leader:

The Pirate Party UK and I are alarmed at the US's continued efforts to enforce its excessive and unpopular copyright legislation outside of the USA.

US prosecutors shut down one of the world’s largest sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and six others with violating piracy laws. Of the seven accused of running an "international organized criminal enterprise", four are in custody after being arrested in New Zealand. US Federal Agencies and local Law Enforcement Agencies acted in unison to obtain bank records and raid server farms across the globe. None of the individuals arrested or indicted lived in the USA. The seven each face almost 60 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

On January 18, many websites will voluntarily go on strike [1] to demonstrate against the threat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) bills, pending US legislation that would restrict freedom of speech, negatively impact economies, and degrade internet security. Participation in the strike has been confirmed by Wikipedia [2], Reddit, Mozilla, and Free Software Foundation, among others. Many organizations, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have expressed grave concerns over the bills [3]

By supporting the baseless US extradition case against Richard O'Dwyer today at Westminster Magistrates Court the judge Judge Quentin Purdy has failed to inject the much needed shot of rationality into the insanity of the UK-US extradition arrangements we had all hoped for. The Sheffield student is accused of infringing copyright by setting up the popular UK website TV Shack.

I'm very pleased with Michael Gove's announcement on scrapping the existing 'Information and Communication Technology' (ICT) curriculum. I think this is a great step forward for young people and technology, and has the potential to increase interest in what is a vital area of skills for British youth.

With the launch of codeyear and the Guardian's campaign to address issues with digital literacy, it is good to see the government giving this part of the curriculum the attention it both needs and deserves.