User talk:Duke

From Pirate Party UK Wiki

[edit] Stuff for NEC meeting 20/12/12, on Legal/Policy Advisory work

Over the last 6 months, aside from the day-to-day stuff of providing information and support for Party members, monitoring developments (or the lack of developments) in various areas, and working as a member of the Board and Press team, the main areas I have worked on are:

• Researching extradition law, particularly as to how it affects the 'big' three cases (Assange, O'Dwyr and McKinnon).
• The Bill of Rights Commission; producing a submission on behalf of the Party.
• Libel Reform; producing a submission to the Parliamentary Committee, and attending the follow-up Libel Reform campaign event at Parliament.
• The Newzbin2 case; following the trial, judgments and fall-out.

Over the next year, the main issues I plan to work on (with the Party) are:

• The IPO consultation on implementing the recommendations of the Hargreaves Review; deadline for submissions mid-March but evidence-gathering will take time,
• The Digital Economy Act Judicial Review; in the Court of Appeal mid-January,
• The DEA Initial Obligations Code; expected to be published by Ofcom in the next few months,
• The DCMS consultation on the Public Lending Right; something I am aware of, not sure if we want to get involved, but is related to "access to cultural works",

• ACTA; now with the European Parliament who will be voting on it within the next few weeks,
• Web-blocking; either via s97A or otherwise is an on-going, and may be appearing in the Communications Bill discussions starting in March-May,
• Nominet; ongoing work concerning a system for domain name seizures, registering as a 'stakeholder' on other issue areas,
• SOPA/ProtectIP; not our jurisdiction, but relevant - currently going through the US Congress, and could have a serious impact on the Internet,
• The Meltwater appeal; going before the Supreme Court probably in late 2012. This ruling could have a serious effect on how the Internet works (in theory).

• Another Draft Defamation Bill should be appearing in the next couple of months, along with the government's response to the various consultations. This may be followed by an actual Bill in the next Parliamentary session (around May) and we may want to do some heavy-duty campaigning/lobbying to take out the nastier parts (such as any stuff on take-down procedures for websites) and make it as freedom-of-expression-friendly as possible.
• The Home Office consultation on Police powers to deal with Public (dis)Order; includes s5 Public Order Act 1986 (which makes being insulting a criminal offence), the removal of face-covering under s60AA CJPOA 1994, and new powers to impose curfews,
• The O'Dwyr extradition case; Magistrate court ruling expected mid-January, probably going to be appealed either way,
• The Assange extradition case; probably reaching the Supreme Court in February,
• The Twitter Joke Trial; not sure what's going on with that, but stuff is ongoing.

I've also recently got hold of a load of music industry stats and figures, which I will be going through carefully in an attempt to draw out any useful conclusions. At some point, I'm also happy to go over the results of the policy review, looking for potential legal issues, and possible ways to implement the policies.