Press release archive for September 2012

"These figures don't prove anything very much, other than the fact that people like music, and that the people of Manchester are leaders in using technology. They are certainly not evidence of the BPI's shrill claims that 'a lot of people are getting very rich' from so-called piracy. Crucially, as MusicMetric point out, torrents can contain legal files and that contributes to these statistics.

The reason that music industry figures are complaining so much is that with a properly functioning Internet, the big players are no longer needed in the same way. Every year, despite piracy, we see revenues in the music industry as a whole are actually rising - it's just that the share that goes to the record companies has been going down, whereas the share that goes directly to the artist has been going up.

"Even in western democracies we're seeing a slide towards censorship; whether it's "morality filters" being applied to our internet connections, newspapers scared of publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, increasingly fatuous super-injunctions or the embarrassment that was the Twitter Joke Trial"

"And of course, in oppressive regimes things are even worse. So it's good to see the weight of Reporters Behind Borders behind the initiative. It's a welcome addition to established sites such as WikiLeaks and Cryptome.org"

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, who has in the past spoken in support of Pirate Party opinions such as the No vote on ACTA and the campaign against the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer, has given evidence to the Parliamentary committee on the Communicatons Data Bill - commonly referred to as the "Snooper's charter".

”Jimmy Wales' description of the Communications Data Bill as ”technologically illiterate” also fits so much of what the UK is facing now, from the Digital Economy Act, opt-in Internet plans and an education system which is failing to keep pace with our European neighbours.

But the snoopers' charter is not just technologically illiterate, it's socially illiterate. It turns us all from citizens in to suspects. Far from keeping us safer, forcing ISPs to keep so much sensitive data puts us at new risk. All of this is to be done at taxpayers' expense, the ...

The arrival of Maria Miller at DCMS presents an opportunity. It is time for her to act boldly and put the Digital Economy Act out of its misery. DCMS must start acting in the interests of culture and the digital economy as a whole, not just a narrow group of industry lobbyists.