User:Cabalamat/Notes on Duke Manifesto Proposal

From Pirate Party UK Wiki

This page contains some notes on Duke's manifesto proposal. It uses the same sections.

Comments are generally of these forms:

• Non-contentious means that the party membership is very likely to approve of the policy as it stands, so the vote should simply be yes/no on whether the proposal is party policy
• Contentious means there's a reasonable possibility that the party will reject the policy. For these proposals, maybe different options should be put to the vote, or an option of having more debate.
• Unclear means I'm not sure what the proposal means, or that it needs to be more tightly worded.
• Needs more detail is self-evident

[edit] Copyright and Patent Policies

[edit] Copyright to apply to commercial exploitation only.

Copyright will not apply to private individuals who copy or share digital media, without receiving any payment. This means that:

• Format-shifting and time-shifting for personal use will be legal
• Non-profit copying for friends and family, and on reciprocal P2P networks will be legal

Explicitly selling copyrighted material, or counterfeiting, where money is directly paid to the supplier of the media, will remain illegal. Note that simply indexing and linking otherwise legal actions under the above exemption will also be legal (no "secondary infringement" or "contributory infringement").

[edit] We want all copyright durations to be reduced to a fairer length.

• Copyright to be reduced to 5 years for all materials with an optional 5-year extension at the creator's discretion.
• Copyright duration to be reduced to 5 years for closed source software.
• Copyright duration to be reduced to 10 years for open source software.

[edit] We want a 'government health warning' on products containing DRM technology.

• "Digital Restrictions Management" is a set of technologies employed by content distributors which aims to limit access, copying and format conversion of media by end-users.
  • We may need a bit about copy protection, which is different according to Wikipedia.
  • We probably want some sort of logo (something like the bio-hazard logo maybe) that should be on the outside of the box and clearly visible at purchase.
  • What happens to DRM after the 5 or 10 year copyright expires? After that it should be legal to circumvent.
• Any EULA that attempts to circumvent this would be voided.

[edit] We think there should be no blank media taxes.

• Some countries have established a tax on all blank media sold, which is preemptively paid to copyright holders for any content that may be copied on the media.
• We want to prevent similar legislation from being instated in the UK.

[edit] Where patents don't promote innovation, or actively prevent it, we'll scrap them

We will not allow patents on software, or on methods and concepts which can be expressed without any physical implementation, such as methods of doing business.

All patents will require a working model, which will be inspectable by the patent office and anyone wishing to implement the patent. The patent will contain the full industrial drawings of the working example, and all other information that would be useful to anyone wishing to replicate it.

We will require patents to be compulsorily licensed at some fixed proportion of the selling price of a product containing them, if the two companies cannot come to an agreement between themselves. In this way, a company wouldn't be able to prevent a competitor from selling a (perhaps better) product, but would receive revenue from them.

Patents will be subject to invalidation if they are "obvious to practitioners in the art", and if they are intentionally written to obscure or obfuscate information. We probably need to add here that even though there is an obviousness criterion in patents, the way this is interpreted by patent offices and courts is far too narrow, so that many things that are obvious in the normal sense of the word are not deemed obvious by the patent system.

We will exempt activities such as non-commerical use, personal study, and academic research, from restriction by patents, so these can never be infringing. "Non-commercial use" would include non-commercial distribution of blueprints for hardware devices, including ones that can directly create the device (such as 3D printers). Similarly, we will exempt activities undertaken to make one product to interface and work satisfactorily with another product from being considered as infringement.

Pharmaceutical patents and the system for funding research and drugs will be fundamentally reformed needs separate section on Pharma patents and research funding

[edit] We feel that everything funded by the taxpayer should be made available to the public under an unreserved (or no) licence.

• Exemptions would be if it would compromise national security or privacy.
• Public data such as the post code database should be put in the public domain and be free for all to use.
• All data generated by the government should be made available in open formats wherever possible.

[edit] All the BBC's output will be available online under a Creative Commons or similar licence.

• All material produced by the BBC and other national broadcasters will be available on demand and at no additional cost, beyond the payment of a TV licence fee or whatever method is developed to fund public service broadcasting in the UK.
• This material is not to be encumbered by the inclusion of DRM methods.

[edit] We feel that large, national events shall be accessible via terrestrial broadcast services.

• National sport events, concerts and public celebrations should not be broadcast exclusively on subscription services.

[edit] We want the Government to switch to open source software 'where practical'.

• We want the government's open source action plan to be put into action.

[edit] Privacy Policies

[edit] We believe privacy of the individual should be sought at all times

• Privacy should be considered the default in any situation and not violated apart from in exceptional circumstances.

[edit] We feel citizens should have the right to private and confidential communication;

• Corporate entities should be forbidden from intercepting or monitoring communication traffic (i.e. telephone calls, post, internet traffic, emails).

• Authorities (such as the police) should only be able to monitor traffic with a specific warrant.

• There should be no restrictions on the use of encryption, Tor, VPNs or similar methods of protecting individual privacy.

[edit] We strongly oppose compulsory ID cards.

• Any 'National Identity Card' should contain only 'trivial' information.
• Any ID card should be usable as a driving licence or passport.
• No RFID chip should be included while such technology is not secure.

[edit] We feel any National Identity Register should only contain 'trivial' information.

• Any additional data required should be included in separate or sub-databases accessible only by the relevant departments (e.g. NHS, DVLA, HMRC) with no cross-referencing apart from with judicial oversight.
• Any data must not be sold or given to any third party, or used for unofficial reasons (with strict penalties).

[edit] We want stronger data protection laws;

• There should be clearer information for the public on the current laws.

• There should be a required level of security (such as passwords or encryption) for all data the laws cover.

• Data collection and retention policies should be clearly laid out (not just with legally complicated agreements); these should include how any data may or will be used.

• There should be tougher penalties - on the relevant data controller - for any breaches of data protection laws (particularly for multiple or commercial breaches and for loss of large amounts of data).

[edit] We want a full review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000;

• This should include looking into examples (both so far and possible ones) of inappropriate use of the powers.
• Stronger guidelines should be laid out for the use of such powers.
• Searches of personal property should only be done with reasonable suspicion of a serious, criminal offence.
• Any non-trivial, targeted surveillance should require a warrant.

[edit] We want clear laws and guidelines on acceptable use of CCTV;

• There should be a database, maintained by the ICO, listing the location and number of cameras, and the contact details for the relevant data controller.
• There should be clear guidelines (if not laws) on how individual cameras or camera systems should be made visible.

[edit] We want clearer guidelines and restrictions on the use of DNA records by authorities;

• Physical samples taken should be destroyed as soon as they have been catalogued.
• Samples should only be taken voluntarily or when there are reasonable grounds to suspect the individual of having committed a serious offence.

[edit] We want increased government transparency and accountability;

• We feel there should be a procedure for constituents to force a by-election in the event of a loss of confidence in their MP.

• Minutes of all meetings of officials on government business should be made public apart from in exceptional circumstances.

• Any international treaties should be passed through the UK parliament as a standard bill, requiring the full approval of both houses.

[edit] We feel there should be more information and better guidelines for the public about privacy-related issues;

• Services that collect and display personal data (such as social networking websites) should advise their users on appropriate data use.

• Those particularly vulnerable - such as the young or those less experienced with technical issues - should be educated on the possible effects of publishing personal data.

[edit] Freedom of Speech Policies

[edit] We believe that the Internet is instrumental to freedom of speech.

• We want net neutrality to be upheld and, if needed, enforced.
  • According to Wikipedia, this means: no restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as communication that is not unreasonably degraded by other traffic.

• There should be no censorship. We don't want military, political or corporate interests to stifle free speech on the internet. We want to avoid the UK becoming a "nanny state".

• Reliable Internet access should be available for all UK citizens.

• We want to eliminate false or misleading advertising; e.g. "up to"; it should be "at least".

[edit] Support for the development of technologies that will help people of all nations to gain or maintain their right to privacy and to freely exchange cultural ideas without commercial or governmental interference.

• Rancid may want to take this one, as he came up with the title.

[edit] We will encourage libraries to make their content as available as possible.

• Libraries should be encouraged to digitise their content.
• The content should be made available online wherever possible.

[edit] We want better Computing education in schools

• Lessons should include whatever

[edit] We feel the current UK libel law can be and is being used to smother free speech.

• See this thread

[edit] All citizens can request meetings with elected officials in order to discover what plans and policies are being discussed.

• The current lobbying system where specific individuals are given privileged access to MP, ministers, secretaries of State, PM on an anonymous basis will be terminated.

[edit] We want to stop the redaction of information for the mere convenience of elected MPs.

• Some MPs have shown that they cannot be trusted to claim expenses for their work. While PPUK recognises that the present parliament has sought to improve the situation a better system is needed.
• possible reference to strengthening freedom of information act could be here?

[edit] We want to promote the inclusion of accessibility features, subtitles, audio descriptions etc for the disabled. These will be required of public broadcasters/developers.

• details

(end)