From ORG Wiki

Please add links to stories in reverse chronological order. Links should be in the form date publication, name of news source, title of the article, author, one line synopsis of what it's about, and whether or not anyone from ORG was actually quoted or whether we were just mentioned.

Contents 1 2009 1.1 December 1.2 November 1.3 October 1.4 September 1.5 August 1.6 July 1.7 June 1.8 May 1.9 April 1.10 March 1.11 February 1.12 January 2 2008 2.1 December 2.2 November 2.3 October 2.4 September 2.5 August 2.6 July 2.7 June 2.8 May 2.9 April 2.10 March 2.11 February 2.12 January 3 2007 3.1 November 3.2 October 3.3 September 3.4 August 3.5 July 3.6 June 3.7 May 3.8 April 3.9 March 3.10 February 3.11 January 4 2006 4.1 December 4.2 November 4.3 October 4.4 September 4.5 August 4.6 July 4.7 June 4.8 May 4.9 April 4.10 March 4.11 February 4.12 January 5 2005

[edit] 2009

[edit] December

2009-12-02 - BBC News - Web giants unite against Digital Britain copyright plan

Summary: Some of the biggest names on the web have written to Peter Mandelson to express "grave concerns" about elements of the Digital Economy Bill. Facebook, Google, Yahoo and eBay object to a clause that they say could give government "unprecedented and sweeping powers" to amend copyright laws... The plans have proved controversial with lobby organisation The Open Rights Group urging people to contact their MP to oppose the plans.

[edit] November

2009-11-23 - Guardian - Sweden sees music sales soar after crackdown on filesharing

Author: Katie Allen

Summary: Thank you for the music – or rather thank you for paying for the music – to misquote Abba. Record labels are pointing to the dramatic rise in music sales in Sweden, just months after the country introduced anti-piracy laws, as evidence of what a similar crackdown in Britain could do to the flagging market... On the other side of the debate over similar proposed laws in Britain, Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, questioned how much the Swedish figures reflected a legal change there. "We shouldn't be surprised that digital revenues are going up in countries like Sweden now that new services have been online for a while. The question is whether it is necessary to have harsh enforcements," he said. Killock believes music companies and other rights holders are already alienating consumers. He points out that Sweden's Pirate party, which wants to legalise internet filesharing, has won a seat in the European parliament. His own group, which is running a "say no to disconnection" campaign, has seen its membership grow by 20% in the last two months, to just over 1,000 people. "If the music industry wants to build a movement of people that are angry with the way they are being treated they are going about it the right way," he said. He and many of the internet service providers argue the way to curb piracy is for music companies to provide more legal online music sources such as Spotify. "Filesharing is not the root of the problem. It's a symptom not a cause. It's a symptom of a lack of relevant services," said Killock.

2009-11-20 - Guardian - Digital divide over filesharing plans

Author: Richard Wray

Summary: The government's planned crackdown on unlawful online filesharing has been attacked by privacy campaigners and internet service providers but welcomed by executives and artists in the music business... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, warned that "people's rights are at stake. The bill doesn't require any test of evidence before harsh punishments are imposed on people accused of copyright infringement, and opens the door to a ratcheting up of unwarranted powers without democratic scrutiny," he said. "There is a massive swell of action against this bill, led by creators, citizens and people working in digital industries, who are outraged by this attempt to hijack our rights."

2009-11-19 - Ars Technica - Queen: We sank the Armada, we can sink some P2P pirates!

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: "My Government will introduce a Bill to ensure the communications infrastructure is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting," said Her Majesty, an innocuous description of the about-to-be-introduced Digital Economy bill... "We believe these laws will be illegal under European law," wrote ORG's Jim Killock after the speech. "The new Amendment 138 [in the European Parliament's major telecom reform bill] appears to guarantee a prior legal process and hearing before disconnection occurs—where our government is proposing an appeal mechanism, for those who choose to take it up. "Appeals mechanisms may be appropriate when it is clear that evidence is robust, and the punishment is clear: but with this proposal neither is true. Evidence cannot show who may have infringed copyright, only what connection was used. And the punishment could have an enormous range of effects, from being disruptive to removing someone’s ability to earn a living. For both these reasons, disconnection should only ever be imposed as the result of a court hearing."

2009-11-18 - BBC News - Government lays out digital plans

Summary: The government has laid out its plans to deal with illegal file-sharers as part of its Digital Economy Bill, outlined in the Queen's Speech... The bill will, according to the government, "ensure communications infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting"... Lobby organisation The Open Rights Group is urging people to contact their MP to oppose the plans. "This plan won't stop copyright infringement and with a simple accusation could see you and your family disconnected from the internet - unable to engage in everyday activities like shopping and socialising," it said.

2009-11-05 - Register - EU block to Mandelson's filesharing laws removed

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: A plan by the European Parliament to restrict the power of national governments to disconnect illegal filesharers has been dumped to win agreement on new telecoms competition laws... Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group, which is campaigning against imminent UK legislation that will target illegal filesharers, said today: "With heavy government pressure, this is not unexpected, but it is disappointing." He said provisions in the agreed package could still offer some hope to the group's campaign. "This could still pose problems for Mandelson, as his proposals still look like relying on poor evidence, and therefore will be pushing people to admit guilt when they are in fact innocent. This wouldn't fit well with the current text, which has a heavy emphasis on fair procedures."

[edit] October

2009-10-28 - Daily Mail - You'll be cut off, internet freeloaders are warned

Summary: Internet connections will be cut if they are used for illegal downloading, Lord Mandelson will today reveal... Jim Killock, of the digital campaigners Open Rights Group, said: 'This smacks of a knee-jerk reaction at a time when copyright infringement is reducing.'

2009-10-23 - cable.co.uk - Broadband 'becoming prominent on political agenda'

Summary: Broadband-related issues are becoming increasingly important to voters, an expert has claimed... This is exemplified by the current issue of filesharing, he explained, as research by the Open Rights Group recently highlighted that less people would vote for a party that supported the disconnection of persistent offenders.

2009-10-20 - Reuters - Groups urge EU to block Oracle's plan to buy Sun

Author: Foo Yun Chee

Summary: EU regulators should block Oracle Corp's plan to buy open source database MySQL via its takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc as Oracle may hinder MySQL's development, two technology and consumer groups said... In a letter to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes dated October 19, digital civil liberties organization Open Rights Group, Knowledge Ecology International and software developer Richard Stallman said they shared the same concerns.

2009-10-19 - Guardian - 70% oppose internet ban for filesharers, poll shows

Author: Patrick Wintour

Summary: Plans to force internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect suspected illegal downloaders have been roundly rejected in a new YouGov poll, the first time public opinion has been tested on the issue. Nearly 70% of those surveyed said someone suspected of illegal downloading should have a right to a trial in court before restrictions on internet use were imposed. Only 16% were in favour of automatic curbs based on accusations by copyright holders such as musicians, as is proposed by the business department... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, the organisation that commissioned the YouGov poll, called the government's plans extremist. "This poll shows people rely on the internet, and an overwhelming majority think that access should only ever be withdrawn as the result of court action. Nearly a third would be much less likely to vote for a party that supports disconnection proposals. Clearly Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, is out of step with public opinion and should think again."

2009-10-05 - Guardian - Web activists protest as Royal Mail threatens over postcode lookup service

Author: Charles Arthur

Summary: Web activists warned yesterday that sites which help people to find jobs and to discover planning applications in their area face legal threats from the Royal Mail to a two-man company. The Royal Mail claims that the site, ernestmarples.com, is breaking the law by piggybacking on other online sites which offer free access to its database which holds a list matching the UK's 1.8m postcodes to geographical locations – and that Royal Mail is suffering "loss" as a result... Planning Alerts had more than 6,000 users. The Open Rights Group (ORG), which campaigns for digital rights, said: "These services would have to pay around £4,000 a year to use postcode data legally, which raises Royal Mail around £1.3m a year. It is easy to see that large numbers of small business ideas and not for profit services are being blocked by these license fees – it is in effect a tax on innovation."

2009-10-02 - Guardian - Electoral Commission rebuffs GLA plans for e-counting

Author: Charles Arthur

Summary: The Electoral Commission has strongly criticised plans by the Greater London Authority's chief executive Leo Boland to push ahead with electronic counting in its 2012 elections, based on the GLA's internal cost-benefit analysis that shows e-counting would cost 40% more than a manual count... he GLA's plans have already been criticised by other groups such as the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for digital rights. It has said that the extra cost of an e-count – estimated in the analysis at £5.1m, compared to £3.6m for a manual count – "doesn't seem rational … when they could spend it on better public services".

[edit] September

2009-09-30 - Guardian - Counting the cost – electronically

Author: Charles Arthur

Summary: You have a task: count around 10m votes. You discover there are two alternative solutions for doing the count. Both will take about the same time; both can be verified by checking back; but one is done by humans and one is done largely by machines. Which do you pick?.. Yet Leo Boland, the chief executive at London City Hall, who took office in January, told the Open Rights Group and other attendees at a round table that he would go ahead with e-counting for the 2012 elections. The move has amazed the Open Rights Group (ORG), a campaigning group on digital rights and civil liberties, which opposes the idea of e-counting unless it can be shown to be as robust and affordable as manual counting. "What are the benefits of e-counting? The GLA says it's faster and cheaper and more modern," says Jason Kitcat, a member of the ORG advisory group who is also head of technology for the website Netmums. "But it isn't faster. In the 2007 trials, all but one [e-counting trial] took longer or as long as manual counts."

2009-09-25 - BBC News - Squeeze file-sharers, stars say

Author: Ian Youngs

Summary: Pop star Lily Allen has joined almost 100 other British musicians at a heated three-hour debate to discuss how to tackle illegal music downloading. The meeting was called after a public dispute among artists over whether serial file-sharers should be punished... Jim Killock, executive director of digital rights activists the Open Rights Group said the musicians had addressed "the symptom and not the cure". He said the only answer was "to licence products to compete with file-sharing", but that major labels were being too cautious in approving new services.

2009-09-24 - CNN - Think you're a good employee? Office snooping software can tell

Summary: Even the most cunning of slackers may have finally met their match in a new piece of office surveillance software. A program has been developed by U.S. firm Cataphora and "encompasses a large number of techniques for analyzing emotive tone in electronic communications", according to the company's Web site... "Businesses should be careful about the implication of control and monitoring," Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, told CNN. "The idea that employees could be judged by patterns in their email traffic must raise concerns: False positives always occur in any analysis, and it seems worrying that individuals may have their actions interpreted with suspicion at a distance by HR departments. People tend to believe what the computer tells them rather more than they should. More than that, Killock believes using such software can have a negative psychological impact on a workplace. It is a powerful signal that you do not fully trust the people you are paying or perhaps don't invest the time and care to properly manage them," he says. "Ask yourself if this will make staff more efficient, or more risk averse and normative? Monitoring could actually damage performance among your more creative staff members. Surveillance, when not absolutely necessary, implies a lack of trust which can only undermine relations between managers and employees. Often surveillance is simply a way of papering over the cracks caused by bad management."

2009-09-22 - IT Pro - Phorm loses money and members of the board

Author: Jennifer Scott

Summary: The first six months of 2009 have been up and down for Phorm with huge losses as well as massive fundraising revenues, but now more senior employees have started to jump ship too. Phorm has announced dramatic losses of $15 million but fundraising has helped kept the company afloat... Concerns were raised around privacy with the technology that tracks internet movements allowing advertising to be targeted to each independent user. The company secretly trialled the tech with BT and had private contracts with other ISPs – Talk Talk and Virgin Media. A stream of condemnation for the technology has followed, from government groups, the open rights group and even Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

2009-09-10 - The Register - Pop stars tell labels to FOAD

Author: Andrew Orlowski

Summary: Controversy has ignited over last week's statement by the Featured Artists Coalition. The group, which is a sort of Emu to the Music Managers' Rod Hull, released a feisty contribution to the Digital Britain consultation process last Thursday. It went practically unnoticed until today... But was it entirely accurate, we wondered? Mandelson has all but ruled out disconnections - temporary suspensions for hardcore refuseniks may be as far as sanctions go. Temporary suspensions are favoured by UK Music, the coalition that represents all the competing interests within the British musi industry. So the only people who seem to want them are the BPI, and davefromblur's Open Rights Group.

2009-09-09 - BusinessWeek - Europe's Heated Reaction to Google Books

Author: Honor Mahony

Summary: Publishers, booksellers, and authors are upset at the copyright, privacy, and censorship implications of Google's plan to digitize millions of books. As the scope of Google's plans to digitise millions of books gradually becomes clear, European publishers, booksellers and authors are up in arms about copyright, data privacy and censorship issues... Jim Killock, from the Open Rights Group, said that "European literature may soon be more available in the U.S.," something he deemed "ironic" and urged the creation of a "pan-European licensing system."

2009-09-07 - Telegraph - Google Books project to remove European titles

Summary: Books owned by European authors and publishers will no longer be part of the Google Books digitisation project, following discussions with the European Union. The decision means that books that are still on sale in Europe but are no longer available to consumers in the United States will now be omitted from the database. Google said that the number of titles affected by the decision was "hard to assess"... "We must not see this dispute as simply a process to deliver a compromise between two commercial interests. Instead we must ask how best to deliver the wealth of European and world literature – and other cultural works – to citizens," said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for digital rights and freedoms online. "We think we must now accept that there is something very wrong with EU copyright law. The incontrovertible evidence is that it needs substantial reform every time an innovative service using copyright works comes along," he said. "Copyright, having acted as an economic incentive to production, is now acting in Europe as a barrier to commercial and academic availability."

2009-09-06 - The Guardian - Internet suspension of illegal downloaders could become law

Author: Katie Allen

Summary: Proposals to suspend the internet connections of people who persist in illegally swapping copyrighted films and music could become law within less than a year despite the fierce debate they have sparked, according to Britain's record label lobby group... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, has cited opposition to similar proposals in France and said: "The result of these proposals is likely to be protest, challenges and public arguments in the run-up to the general election."

2009-09-03 - The Guardian - Lammy appeals to film and music industries to help tackle online piracy

Author: Katie Allen

Summary: Film studios and record labels should not rely on the threat of legal action to force consumers into buying their products, but instead work to help people understand the impact of filesharing, according to intellectual property minister David Lammy... Digital rights groups have attacked the government move as a kneejerk reaction. The Open Rights Group says suspension of internet access would restrict people's fundamental right to freedom of expression.

2009-09-03 - The Times - BT, Orange and TalkTalk condemn plan to tackle illegal file sharing

Author: Nic Fildes

Summary: The chief executives of Britain’s biggest internet providers have united to criticise Lord Mandelson’s “misconceived” plans to disconnect users who illegally download music and films. In a letter in The Times today, Ian Livingston, of BT; Charles Dunstone, of Carphone Warehouse, which owns TalkTalk; and Tom Alexander, of Orange in Britain, say that the vast majority of customers do not share files illegally and blameless customers would suffer under the proposals. “We must avoid an extrajudicial kangaroo court process,” they said... The internet providers’ letter, which has also been signed by Which?, the Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus, urges Lord Mandelson to consider carefully his plan to tackle the illegal filesharing problem in light of “significant consumer resistance”.

[edit] August

2009-08-26 - Computerworld - British proposal to cut Web access to copyright infringers draws protest

Author: Jaikumar Vijayan

Summary: A British government proposal that would require Internet service providers to cut off Web access to those found to be illegally downloading copyrighted music and video is evoking protest in that country. Critics call the proposal a step in the wrong direction that would put the country in violation of its own laws and those in the European Union... The Open Rights Group, a London-based civil rights group said the proposal represented "heavy-handed intervention" and directly contravened the government's position on universal Internet access. "The result of these proposals is likely to be protest, challenges and public arguments in the run-up to the general election," the group said on its Web site.

2009-08-26 - AP - Illegal downloaders in Britain may lose Web access

Summary: The British government says people who illegally download music and films could have their Internet connections cut off... The Open Rights Group — which aims to raise awareness of digital rights — said any suspension would "restrict people's fundamental right to freedom of expression."

2009-08-25 - BBC News - Who is batting for file-sharing proposals?

Author: Rory Cellan-Jones

Summary: "Peter just doesn't get the internet..." That was the instant reaction of one person I spoke to this morning about the government's new measures against illegal file-sharing - and Lord Mandelson's part in them. And this was not someone from digital campaigners the Open Rights Group or from an internet service provider, but a political insider from the same party as the business secretary.

2009-08-25 - cbc.ca - Britain moves to curb filesharing

Summary: Britain's government is looking to temporarily cut off internet access for people who download music and films illegally. Treasury Minister Stephen Timms on Tuesday announced a plan that would require internet service provides to block access to certain filesharing sites, throttle internet connections and suspend users' accounts if they were found to be repeatedly downloading copyrighted material... The move was cheered by copyright holders, but Britain's Open Rights Group, an organization that aims to protect internet users, said such a plan would "restrict people's fundamental right to freedom of expression."

[edit] July

2009-07-24 - Guardian - British ISP pulls the plug on illegal filesharers

Author: Alexandra Topping

Summary: Internet users in Hull risk having their connection cut if they illegally share files, under a controversial "three strikes and out policy" operated by the only internet service provider in the area... Digital rights campaign organisation, The Open Rights Group, criticised the company's decision to continue disconnecting its customers. Executive director Jim Killock said: "Karoo's policy still has major concerns around presuming guilt, allowing innocent people to clear their name, and allowing due process to take place. They are still threatening to cut users from the internet without testing the evidence. This is especially concerning given their monopoly position." He added: "Even prisoners get to use the internet. For many people, web access is not optional in the modern world."

2009-07-24 - BBC News - Plug-pulling ISP changes policy

Summary: Internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull, has changed its policy of suspending the service of users suspected of copyright violations. The about face was made following a BBC story outlining the firm's practice... Jim Killock, executive director of the digital rights activists The Open Rights Group, told the BBC that it is "totally unfair" to disconnect people without notice. "In fact, disconnection is something that should only even possibly be considered as a result of court action," he said.

2009-07-24 - Ars Technica - One strike: UK ISP goes medieval on P2P users, relents

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: The award for "most draconian plan to disconnect accused file-sharers" goes to Karoo, a small UK ISP that serves the city of Hull. After a single copyright infringement accusation, and without first notifying customers, the company cuts off service. Following an outcry, it agrees to changes its ways... Jim Killock, new head of the UK's Open Rights Group, is appalled, especially since the UK government has made clear that disconnection is not a preferred penalty in these sorts of cases, and most ISPs have been sending out only warnings. "None of this takes place through a court," he wrote in a blog post. "The ‘evidence’ is not examined and cannot be disputed. Users have to accept responsibility for the alleged infringements in order to be reconnected. There is a basic question of proportionality. A teenager who downloads a song with a purchase value of under a pound may cause their parent’s job or businesses to be disrupted. Copyright infringement could easily lead to loss of a citizen’s ability to partake in political action organised online... There’s also a strong element of bullying. By signing an indemnity and promising not to infringe copyright in the future, users are being asked to do something impossible. You cannot tell what’s legal to download or watch by looking at the file. Even the providers themselves can get it wrong—that’s why copyright cases go to court."

2009-07-14 - ForexYard - Ads set to get more personal despite privacy worry

Author: Georgina Prodhan

Summary: Advertising that targets consumers based on their behaviour is here to stay despite a victory for privacy groups last week when two UK telecom firms ditched plans for technology that tracks consumer Web use. Credit-card providers and stores that issue loyalty cards have long known the advantages of understanding their customers' behaviour, and now the Internet holds the promise for all advertisers to place their ads before the right customer's eyes... "The field is fraught and I don't think anybody's got it completely right yet," said Jim Killock, executive director of digital civil liberties organisation the Open Rights Group.

2009-07-10 - Telegraph - 118800: Has the privacy backlash already begun?

Author: Basheera Khan

Summary: Hold the phone. Hold the freakin’ phone. Has somebody reset the time circuits and taken us back to the 90s? Is it suddenly okay to opt people in to a potentially intrusive service until they choose to opt out? Last time I checked, this was considered shockingly poor form in an industry which relies on building trust with consumers... I discussed the matter with the friendly people at the Open Rights Group, who expect a considerable public backlash on this one that could be very damaging to any companies that are involved, given the rising tide of privacy concerns. One has to wonder if the ’service unavailable’ page is the first evidence of a growing negative sentiment.

2009-07-07 - IT Pro - Open Rights Group says BT has made the right decision to not implement Phorm's advertising system.

Author: Nicole Kobie

Summary: Following yesterday's news that BT has no immediate plans to use Phorm's network scanning behavioural advertising system, its vocal critics stepped up to celebrate... Open Rights Group's Jim Killock - who previously compared Phorm to corporate espionage - welcomed BT's decision and called on other ISPs including Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk to "follow their lead. This is the right decision for BT and other online providers who respect privacy," he wrote on ORG's site. But he warned: "Phorm will remain a threat to our fundamental rights while they offer services that intercept communications without the consent of all parties."

2009-07-07 - Guardian - Our surfing is our business

Author: Jim Killock

Summary: Phorm focuses on taking a look at as much of your web surfing as it can get away with, which is dangerous enough. But much worse, its technology is likely to be illegal, by breaking your right to consent to "interception" of your communication. Phorm and BT started by looking at customers' internet traffic without telling them. Campaigners complained to the information commissioner, the interception commissioner, government departments, Ofcom and the police. All refused to act. So, last year, the Open Rights Group wrote to Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner. She had at least two concerns with UK legislation. First, citizens have a right under EU law to take complaints about private interception to the authorities. Second, when the data is commercially sensitive or a communication between individuals, Phorm may need to gain the consent of websites or all users. Reding is, as a result, taking the government to court over the way EU legislation has been passed into UK law. If we ignore principles such as gaining consent before intercepting our communications, then we erode the barriers to abusing our data in the future.

2009-07-07 - New York Times - BT Decides Not to Adopt Internet-Based Ad System

Author: Eric Pfanner

Summary: Amid rising concern about privacy, BT Group, the British telecommunications company, said Monday that it would not adopt a technology that lets advertisers tailor their pitches to consumers based on interests revealed by their Internet use... “It’s a huge victory for privacy,” said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a civil liberties organization based in London.

2009-07-06 - Ars Technica - UK ISP drops Phorm behavioral ad tech—for now

Author: Jacqui Cheng

Summary: UK ISP BT has decided not to roll out the controversial behavioral advertising system Phorm for the time being, instead focusing its resources on more important prospects. The news comes as a relief to privacy groups in the UK, though Phorm is not dead yet...Digital rights groups are pleased with the news. The Open Rights Group described the move as "the right decision for BT and other online providers who respect privacy," and urged other UK ISPs to follow BT's lead in dropping Phorm.

2009-07-06 - Guardian - Phorm plunges as BT mothballs targeted ads service

Author: Richard Wray

Summary: Shares in Phorm, the Aim-listed technology firm, have plunged after it emerged that BT has quietly pulled plans to roll out its controversial advertising system, which tracks the internet habits of customers and has been attacked as online snooping by privacy campaigners... Jim Killock, the executive director of Open Rights Group, which has campaigned hard against Phorm, said: "Open Rights Group welcomes BT's decision and hopes other UK ISPs, particularly Virgin Media and TalkTalk, will follow their lead. This is the right decision for BT and other online providers who respect privacy. Phorm will remain a threat to our fundamental rights while they offer services that intercept communications without the consent of all parties."

[edit] June

2009-06-26 - Guardian - Facebook hires lobbyists to push privacy agenda

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: Facebook is hiring lobbyists to push its agenda on internet privacy and data sharing in Brussels and Washington, as the social networking site attempts to increase its influence with authorities around the world. The company has appointed Richard Allan, who was previously the head of European regulatory affairs for the technology giant Cisco, to lead its efforts in lobbying EU governments... Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for the rights of British citizens online, says technology companies are increasingly choosing to exert pressure at European level, rather than in more tightly monitored environments, such as Westminster. "It is much easier for commercial concerns to lobby Brussels, which is distant from public attention but shapes very important legislation," he said. "Businesses will pay to make sure their views are heard, and it's difficult for citizens to match that."

2009-06-26 - BBC News - Music industry 'missed' Napster

Summary: The music industry would be in better shape now if it had engaged with Napster rather than fought it. So says Geoff Taylor, head of music industry body BPI, in a column written for the BBC. In the column, Mr Taylor expressed "regret" that the music industry did not move faster to work out how to use the net to promote and sell records... In response, Jim Killock, head of the Open Rights Group, said: "It's great that the BPI are willing to apologise for their past mistakes with Napster, but they are busy trying to make the same mistake again by 'clamping down' on illicit P2P. "By trying to get the government to clamp down on users, they risk alienating music's greatest fans, and bringing copyright into disrepute," he said.

2009-06-19 - Financial Times - Amateurs race professionals to uncover great truths from little details

Author: Tim Bradshaw

Summary: Enthusiastic amateurs are being pitted against investigative journalists after the publication online of MPs' expenses, as newspapers and members of the public race to find the best stories buried within tens of thousands of documents. Technical experts have developed a number of sites that allow users to help sift information in the quest for new leads. The sites work by asking users to read scanned, often handwritten, documents and sort them into categories such as housing or entertainment, so that trends in MPs' spending can be spotted... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a digital rights campaigner, said: "The Telegraph [newspaper] has done a pretty fantastic job holding MPs to account but in the long run, having constituents looking through their MP's expense records is going to make them think long and hard about how they spend our money."

2009-06-18 - IT Pro - A senior Tory MP has warned the Conservatives will scrap ID card plans so companies bidding to provide them should not enter into further contracts with the current Government.

Author: Jennifer Scott

Summary: A Conservative MP is warning companies involved with the ID card scheme to avoid any further contracts, as the plans will be scrapped if the Conservatives win the next general election... Jim Killock, member of the Open Rights Group, strongly opposed to ID cards, said: “Obviously contractors will expect some certainty that they won't be left to foot the bill if their contracts are terminated early. But there's a difference between commercial needs and trying to subvert the ability of a future government to make it own decisions. There's no secret in the Conservative and Liberal Democrat's opposition to ID Cards, nor that they would seek to end the scheme; commercial contractors will no doubt have considered the possibility of the scheme being scrapped and built that into the arrangements they have made. Contracts shouldn't come before the democratic will of the people, and if Labour force the country to pay an unnecessary bill for scrapping the scheme, that's likely to leave a bitter taste for years to come.”

2009-06-09 - eWeek Europe - Software Patent Pirates Plunder EU Seat

Author: Andrew Donoghue

Summary: Swedish anti-software patent campaigners have won a seat in the EU parliament after winning more than 7 percent of the vote in the country's European election. The Swedish Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) won 7.1 percent of the vote spurred in part by the recent controversy surrounding the prosecution of the founders of The Pirate Bay file-sharing website... UK campaigners The Open Rights Group said that it was important that the EU elections gave proper attention to digital rights. "The story of digital rights shows that citizens will act to defend their rights while others seek to erode them, and will expect Parliamentarians to act in citizens’ interests. Defence of our digital rights, based on our human rights and legitimate user expectations, is an opportunity for parliamentarians to gain the trust of citizens if they have the political courage to act," the group said in a blog entry.

2009-06-02 - Vnunet - MEP election campaigns ignore online policy issues

Author: Rosalie Marshall

Summary: Just days before the European elections, the majority of standing UK MEPs have not outlined their policies to voters on the areas of net neutrality, copyright or data privacy. Digital rights groups have insisted that MEPs need to make a clear stand, pointing out that laws affecting online access and data protection are generally formed by European institutions rather than national governments... "It is the responsibility of EU candidates to help educate voters about their views on these matters," said Jim Killock, executive director at the Open Rights Group (ORG). "Not only do voters need to know that they are electing people with power to make these decisions, but we all need to enter a democratic debate about where Europe is heading."

[edit] May

2009-05-26 - Edinburgh News - Fringe pair stay trapped in 4ft diameter pods to raise cash for show

Author: Gemma Fraser

Summary: BEING trapped in a pod just 4ft in diameter, unable to stretch or go to the bathroom while having to listen to heavy metal or the Crazy Frog, may sound like a nightmare. But two students willingly signed up for what must be most people's idea of torture – all in the name of fundraising. William Green and Matt Wieteska spent 26 hours curled up in the "escape" pod, without being able to stretch out, sleep for any more than two hours at a time or even go to the bathroom... As the group raised almost £800 and have covered their production costs, they are donating a percentage of the fundraising money to civil liberties charity the Open Rights Group.

2009-05-20 - PC Pro - Phorm "no worse than Tesco"

Author: Barry Collins

Summary: The practices of controversy-strewn web advertising service Phorm are "not philosophically different" to those of Tesco or Amazon, according to an e-commerce lawyer. Vanessa Barnett, partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner, was speaking at a Westminster eForum on behavioural targeting. The event heard from speakers including Phorm's senior vice president, Mark Burgess, and the executive director of the Open Rights Group, which is urging leading websites to opt-out of the Phorm scheme. Barnett compared Phorm's behavioural tracking service - which serves up adverts based on the user's internet traffic - to Tesco's Clubcard scheme and Amazon's shopping recommendations. "What Phorm and Google are doing isn't philosophically different to what Tesco and Amazon are doing," she claimed. That argument was rejected by the Open Rights Group's executive director, Jim Killock, who compared Phorm's technology to "industrial espionage" because it didn't seek the permission of commercial websites to collect data about their visitors' surfing habits. In our view, these services should be opt-in," Killock said. "Data shouldn't be collected without consent. If you're running a website and your data is being collected by a third party, you should want a contractual relationship with that third party. Many businesses may go so far as to think that having their data spied upon is a form of industrial espionage."

2009-05-20 - ITPro - Critic compares Phorm to ‘industrial espionage’

Author: Nicole Kobie

Summary: Behavioural advertising system Phorm could be seen as ‘industrial espioniage’ by some businesses, according to one critic. Phorm scans network traffic to help it decide which ads to display to the user - a system which the firm claims offers better advertising but critics say is intrusive. The EU is currently pondering whether a trial of it in the UK was illegal. Speaking at a Westminster eForum on the subject, Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group (ORG) said it’s not just individuals who are concerned with Phorm’s deep packet inspection, but companies as well. “May businesses will think commerical data and relationships should simply be private until they and their customers decide,” Killock said. "Many businesses may go so far as to think that having their data spied upon is a form of industrial espionage," he added. Killock said that any business running a website should have a contractual relationship with any third party that will see their data.

2009-05-20 - ZDNet UK - Number 10 will not investigate Phorm

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: The Prime Minister's Office has rebuffed a public call for a government investigation into Phorm, saying that the independent Information Commissioner's Office is responsible for ensuring that the behavioural ad-serving technology does not contravene privacy laws. On Tuesday, Number 10 published a response to an e-petition that had called for an investigation of Phorm's technology by the government, and a ban on its adoption by internet service providers if it was found to breach European or British privacy laws. Phorm intercepts user data traffic to anonymously profile people and serve them adverts based on their web-browsing behaviour... Jim Killock, director of digital-rights organisation the Open Rights Group, told ZDNet UK that Number 10 was dodging the issue of scrutinising the legality of Phorm. "Clearly, the ICO doesn't have a role in intercept," said Killock. "Number 10 is passing the buck to an organisation which doesn't have that responsibility, which is at best obfuscation." Killock added that the legality of Phorm's service under Ripa should be examined. "You shouldn't be intercepting data traffic without the clear consent of all users involved," said Killock. "If you intercept a communication, everyone involved should give clear, informed consent."

2009-05-10 - Guardian - What does the state know about you?

Author: Jim Killock

Summary: What does the government know about us? Where are they keeping this information and who can see it? And what else are they planning? These are the questions that the Open Rights group tries to answer in our new spoof website Statebook. A quick glance shows you the travel, communication, employment and education databases that hold information on you. It doesn't take long to realise that the picture the state can build about individuals is very revealing.

2009-05-07 - ZDNet Asia - IP infringement fines to increase tenfold in UK

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: The U.K. government is to increase the maximum fine for intellectual-property infringement from US$7,520 to US$75,200. Following a consultation by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office (IPO), a majority of respondents supported the increase in the maximum fine, known as an exceptional statutory maxima. Respondents included the Publisher's Association, the British Phonographic Industry and the Alliance Against Intellectual Property Theft... The Open Rights Group (ORG), a digital civil-liberties organization, said that, while the commercial production of pirated works should be penalized, it would be helpful to have a 'fair use' clause built into IP legislation to prevent small-scale, domestic file-sharers being unnecessarily prosecuted. "What this shows is that there is a very real need to separate out domestic individuals who may be infringing copyright, but not making a profit, from criminal gangs engaged in industrial-scale intellectual-property infringement," Jim Killock, ORG executive director, told ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet UK on Wednesday. "The way things are headed with enforcement at the moment, the IPO has to be careful not to get those two groups mixed up."

2009-05-06 - Zeropaid - European Parliament Shuts the Door on Three Strikes Law

Author: DrewWilson

Summary: After a long and hard fought battle, consumer rights advocates and activists in Europe have reason to celebrate today. The back door for a graduated response toward the French proposal of a Three Strikes law has officially been effectively voted down for a third and final time. The only thing left is technical details that could pave the way to other things that could be perceived as a threat to European citizens, but the major debate surrounding three strikes is over and advocates for such a proposal have officially lost. Late last week, we reported that in a near last minute last ditch effort, the graduated response backdoor for a European-wide three strikes law was re-introduced in the European parliament. Since then, consumer rights organizations like the Open Rights group have been working very hard to round up European support for amendments that would recognize internet access as a right - an amendment that would shoot down any last remaining hope that a Three Strikes law could prevail through the European Parliament.

2009-05-05 - ITPro - Government agency denies tech monitoring plans

Author: Jennifer Scott

Summary: The Government Communciations Headquarters has denied developing technology to monitor all UK phone and internet use... The GCHQ insisted that it “does not target anyone indiscriminately” saying: "All our activities are proportionate to the threats against which we seek to guard and are subject to tests on those grounds by the Commissioners.” However Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group claimed: “The statement doesn't appear to contradict the idea that 'black boxes' to intercept communications may be installed. It simply says they don't plan to create a massive database nor monitor everyone.”

[edit] April

2009-04-30 - The Guardian - Is Phorm's new website really going to stop foul play?

Author: Charles Arthur

Summary: First it would have to demonstrate that there has been foul play - but judging by the stopphoulplay.com website, which went live on Tuesday morning, the software company Phorm doesn't have much to go on apart from its own continuing frustration at its critics... Initial reaction, however, suggests the idea has backfired badly. And to the possible delight of libel lawyers, the site names those it calls "the main characters in the anti-Phorm campaign", including The Register website (which was the first to write about Phorm's first, potentially illegal, trial in 2007, carried out without user consent), the Open Rights Group (ORG) and a number of individuals including the IT specialist Alexander Hanff... Jim Killock, ORG's executive director, said: "It's very strange behaviour for a stockmarket-listed company to be making accusations like that."

2009-04-28 - vnunet - Experts wary of latest Big Brother comms data plans

Author: Rosalie Marshall

Summary: The government confirmed this week that its plans for retaining all communications data, including logs of phone calls, internet visits and emails, would not include the development of a £12bn centralised 'super database' to store the information. Instead, internet service providers (ISPs) and communications companies will be expected to collect and retain the data, and make it easy for public authorities to access. However, industry experts have expressed concerns over the latest plans and their impact on privacy, arguing that they could be just as harmful as the 'super-database'.... However, Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock pointed out that details of the new proposal still remain vague. He questioned what safeguards the ISPs will employ, which government departments will be allowed to view the data and when access will be allowed. The new set of powers [the government] intends to give to communication companies might be just as intrusive to individuals' privacy as the database would have been. We just don't know," said Killock.

2009-04-28 - BBC News - Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'

Author: Darren Waters

Summary:The Home Office has been accused of colluding with online ad firm Phorm on "informal guidance" to the public on whether the company's service is legal. E-mails between the ministry and Phorm show the department asking if the firm would be "comforted" by its position. Jim Killock, executive director of privacy campaigners, the Open Rights Group, said: "The Home Office's job is to uphold the law: not to reinterpret it for commercial interests. It's extraordinary, when you think of the blatant disregard Phorm showed towards UK laws in its secret trials, that this sort of lax attitude should be shown."

2009-04-27 - vnunet - Blocking Phorm won't stop it, warns privacy group

Author: Rosalie Marshall

Summary: A data protection group has warned that opting out of Phorm will not prevent the technology from processing data that users enter through web site search portals. Companies such as Amazon, Wikipedia and LiveJournal have taken the decision to block the controversial advertising technology from scanning their sites because of the privacy implications. However, Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock has since admitted that, even if web sites opt out of the programme, ISPs supporting Phorm will still be able to profile users visiting those sites. "This is because Phorm can scan search requests entered in those sites, even if it cannot detect the web site pages users are viewing," Killock said. "For example, even if Google opts out of Webwise, when a user types in a Google query and they are using BT, it will still go through Phorm before it reaches BT." Killock added that Phorm does not gain permission from either senders or receivers of the information before it processes the data.

2009-04-27 - Ars Technica - EU extends musical copyrights by 20 years, eyes movies next

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: The European Parliament late last week agreed to extend musical copyrights from their current 50-year term to 70 years. So all that early rock 'n roll about to pass into the public domain? Don't count on using it in your documentary for another two decades—and there's nothing to say that the term won't be extended again. But, according to the UK-based Open Rights Group, this isn't about session musicians anyway. Writing in the Telegraph recently, the group's executive director said, "That argument is hard to swallow. Firstly, two-thirds of the money that a recording generates is made in the first six years after publication. We might conclude that if artists want to survive in their later years, record companies should ensure they invest in a pension, not depend of the vague hope of earnings from ancient recordings. Secondly, an analysis of the figures shows where the money really ends up. About 80 percent will go to recording companies. Of the rest, nearly all would go to big stars, and a very small percentage to the small artists the Directive claims to be all about."

2009-04-22 - iTWire - Amazon and Wikipedia phactor Phorm out of the privacy equation

Author: Davey Winder

Summary: Even if the UK Government is not going to stop Phorm spying on Internet users on privacy grounds, it looks like some of the biggest brands on the Web will... It all really kicked off when privacy campaigners the Open Rights Group sent an open letter to some of the biggest Internet brands last month, a letter which laid out its argument why they should boycott Phorm on user privacy grounds. Now it would appear that a number of those brands agree, Amazon and LiveJournal amongst them, and have decided to opt out of the Phorm Webwise system altogether. Jim Killock, executive director at the Open Rights Group says "...these firms have taken the positive choice to protect their users’ privacy and their own brands. We expect more sites to block Webwise in the near future and also call on ISPs to drop plans to snoop on web users."

2009-04-20 - MediaPost - Wikipedia Opts Out Of Phorm BT Scanning

Author: Wendy Davis

Summary: Controversial ad company Phorm suffered another blow last week when online encyclopedia Wikipedia opted out of the company's behavioral targeting platform... Last month, the U.K. digital rights organization Open Rights Group urged major Web companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, AOL, Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay to opt out of Phorm. "You may have concerns of your own; that a third party will be processing the contents of your website, without asking your permission, in order to construct profiles of your customers," the group wrote in an open letter to the companies. "We strongly believe that it is clearly in your company's interest, it is in the interests of all of your customers, and it will serve to protect your brand's reputation, if you insist that the Phorm/Webwise system does not process any data that passes to or from your website."

2009-04-15 - Music Week - Open Rights slams copyright

Author: Stephen Eddie

Summary: The UK has the worst copyright laws “by far” according to a survey carried out by Consumer Focus and digital rights campaigners the Open Rights Group. The Intellectual Property Watch List looked at how well 16 country’s laws balanced the interests of consumers and copyright holders. And it claims the UK ranked worst, above countries with major piracy problems such as China, India and South Korea... Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock says, "It is ridiculous to ban copying, sampling and parody without payment, yet that is how the law stands today. The Government is undermining copyright's reputation by failing to give clear rights to users in a changed digital world, where we all rip, mix and burn.”

2009-04-15 - Islington Gazette - Campaigners aim to protect 'digital rights'

Summary: DIGITAL privacy campaigners are holding a meeting in Clerkenwell to discuss the rise of the "database state" and its consequences.... Mr Doctorow said: "Charles Stross and I are doing a benefit talk for the Open Rights Group entitled 'Resisting the all-seeing eye'. The ORG is a damned worthy cause, especially in this era of ubiquitous surveillance."... An ORG spokesman said: "With the rise of the database state and firms profiting from user-profiling, it's vital to resist surveillance and ensure the integrity of your digital personality.

2009-04-14 - BBC News - EC starts legal action over Phorm

Author: Darren Waters

Summary: The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over the online advertising technology Phorm. It follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioural advertising service was tested on BT's broadband network without the consent of users... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group said: "There are big legal questions surrounding BT's use of Phorm, so we welcome the EU taking the government to task. BT should respect everyone's privacy and drop their plans to snoop on the internet before they damage their own reputation further. Websites should protect their users and block Phorm now."

[edit] March

2009-03-12 - ClickZ - U.K. Parliament Debates ISP-Based Behavioral Targeting

Author: Jack Marshall

Summary: At a parliamentary roundtable event in the House of Commons yesterday, Members of Parliament, Lords, and industry experts met to discuss the privacy implications concerning ISP-level behavioral targeting from companies such as Phorm and NebuAd. The intention of the session, which was hosted by Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, Baroness Sue Miller, was to "inform parliamentarians" on the issues surrounding the controversial practice... Richard Clayton, treasurer for the Foundation for Information Policy Research, agreed that ISPs had no business in intercepting user communications, stating, "Providing better ads is not the role of the ISP. It's not lawful." Meanwhile, Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, argued the practice would "undermine our confidence in governments to preserve our basic human rights," and suggested that commercial pressures would eventually lead to richer, potentially more revealing data being utilized.

2009-03-09 - IT Pro - Government scraps data sharing plans

Author: Miya Knights

Summary: Jack Straw has bowed to pressure from civil liberty groups and public sector bodies, including the Information Commissioner, to scrap controversial clause 152 in the Justice Bill. Justice Secretary Jack Straw decided to shelve plans to use citizen information obtained for other purposes under the Data Protection Act (DPA) in the fight against terrorism and crime, as outlined in Clause 152 of the bill... The Open Rights Group thanked all of its members who responded to its call to write to their MPs on the issue, calling the clause “a profound threat to privacy, liberty and the rule of law”.

2009-03-05 - The Register - Industry’s behavioural ad guidelines criticised

Author: OUT-LAW.COM

Summary: The trade body for the online advertising industry has produced guidelines for companies to follow to ensure that behavioural advertising does not breach users' rights to privacy. Privacy activists have said the rules do not protect users enough. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published the guidelines and Google, Microsoft Advertising, Yahoo! SARL and Phorm have all committed to following them. The IAB said that signatories have six months in which to comply with the rules... Digital rights body the Open Rights Group (ORG) said, though, that the protections offered by the rules were not good enough for users of the web. In a statement on the body’s blog, executive director Jim Killock said that the way that the rules say users should opt out of the system is a problem. “The sites using behavioural advertising are likely to be operating via cookies. Any ‘opt out’ would be stored by a cookie. So each time a user deletes their cookies, or changes browser or machine, they have to opt out,” he said. “This makes opting out a repeated procedure, such that which would make all but the most stubborn user simply give their consent. This is not how consent should work, and a system that ‘pesters’ users into opting in is in our view an illegitimate attempt to substitute acquiescence for consent, whereas nothing but consent is acceptable,” said Killock. “If users want more relevant advertising, and this is to be achieved by allocating them to ‘segments‘, why not let them choose the segments they want to belong to? We do not accept the claim that behavioural surveillance for profiling is a service to users,” said Killock.

2009-03-04 - vrunet.com - Information Commissioner to increase technology staff

Author: Rosalie Marshall

Summary: The UK's data privacy watchdog has revealed that it plans to hire more computer experts, after conceding that it needs to bolster its technical expertise in a bid to deal with new statutory responsibilities and advances in technology. A public meeting held on Saturday to discuss issues surrounding data protection concluded that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) needs more technical expertise if it is to police the growing number of databases holding UK citizens' private data... Chairing the discussion was Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group. He said that David Smith, deputy Information Commissioner, was asked why the ICO had not hired more computer science graduates to bolster its expertise.

[edit] February

2009-02-11 - Ars Technica - Phorm: damn the EU, full speed ahead!

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: The EU has some tough questions for the UK government about why it never prosecuted advertising firm Phorm for its secret trials. Not that Phorm sounds worried; the company's CEO pledges the system will be live in the UK by the end of 2009. Phorm—even the name conjures up "phear" among opponents of the company's targeted advertising technology. But what does Phorm say about itself? Its stated goal is "to create a new, more responsive, intuitive kind of Internet experience, and that sounds hard to beat. But the EU has some hard questions about the way the company has gone about its business, and it wants answers that the UK government appears strangely unwilling to provide... The rules sound like a good start, especially when compared to the less-than-robust "notification" processes we saw in the NebuAd trials. But the UK's Open Rights Group complains that no one is even talking about a huge legal issue: does Phorm need the permission of both the users and the websites that they visit in order to legally intercept communications? "Unless the ISPs employing Phorm’s technology to intercept the communications between their customers and the owners of the websites their customers are visiting have the explicit consent of both parties," said the group last year, "they are likely to be committing an offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), the legislation that governs interception of communications in the UK."

2009-02-09 - BBC News - Warning over 'surveillance state'

Summary: Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are "pervasive" in British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned. CCTV cameras and the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said. It called for compensation for people subject to illegal surveillance... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, urged the government to "reassert" its control over the use of data. He said: "Governments tend to think that gathering new information on citizens is a good thing. But that's not true if our privacy is undermined and our data isn't secure. We need to see privacy by design: you can't bolt on privacy at the end of big government IT projects, we need privacy safeguards built into systems right at the start."

2009-02-02 - Guardian - Your ISP is watching you

Author: Becky Hodge

Summary: A man walks through a shopping precinct. Tiny cameras capture his every move. If he so much as turns his head to glimpse into a shop window, that action is recorded, next to a reference number that identifies him uniquely among the many shoppers around him. As he walks through the crowded mall, the advertising billboards subtly change to suit his profile, flashing aeroplanes and knitted sweaters to replace the beach towels and lipstick intended for the woman in front of him. He ducks out of the precinct, looks around him, then walks down a side street to the door of a VD clinic. But the cameras are still watching him. Silently, passively. But watching him all the same ... Thanks to hard work from campaigners at the Foundation for Information Policy Research and the Open Rights Group, and activists at dephormation.org.uk and nodpi.org, we now have that choice. The Information Commissioner's Office has ruled that BT must ask the explicit permission of its customers to "opt in" before enrolling them into its Webwise trial (rather than the pernicious "opt out" clauses so beloved of marketers and junk mail operatives). Here's why I think every last one of those customers should actively count themselves out.

[edit] January

2009-01-30 - Computer Buyer - Digital Britain: ISPs to expose file sharers

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: ISPs will be required to reveal the identity of persistent file sharers under new proposals published by the UK government. ... The Open Rights Group disagrees, saying that the report marginalises consumers. "We are concerned that there is no suggestion that consumers and citizens should be represented on the proposed copyright 'Rights Agency'. Without our voices, such an agency could easily be dominated by industry's concerns at the expense of civil rights. Consumer would be very likely to get a bad deal," said executive director Jim Killock. He notes that while digital music providers like iTunes and Amazon are moving away from DRM and trusting their customers, the government continues to seek technical ’solutions’ for copyright enforcement. "Technical 'solutions' to social issues tend to be expensive and fail," he said, adding that ORG intends to closely examine the proposals for forcing ISPs to report alleged rights infringers. "While we welcome the proposal to ask the courts before taking action, we are concerned at the potential for further erosion of privacy online," he said.

2009-01-30 - BBC News - Firms back data protection pledge

Summary: Firms are being encouraged to back a pledge to safeguard the data they hold about citizens and customers... "It would be really good to see signatories agree to having spot checks made by the ICO," said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group. "That's what happens other European countries, where their data protection watchdogs have real teeth. Given recent government data leaks, it would give us all a lot more confidence if the ICO could walk in and check that our personal information is being kept safely," he said.

2009-01-29 - ZDNet.co.uk - Privacy activists first to criticise Carter

Author: David Meyer

Summary: The first reactions to Lord Carter's interim Digital Britain report have been flooding in, and almost all have been packed with as many fuzzy platitudes as the report itself. Almost... Perhaps predictably, given the government's stated intention to force ISPs to effectively turn over user data to the record industry regarding filesharing, the Open Rights Group has a bone or two to pick with Carter & Co. "We are extremely concerned that the voice of consumers and citizens is being marginalised," said ORG executive director Jim Killock in a statement.

2009-01-29 - Ars Technica - "Digital Britain" to legislate graduated response for ISPs

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: The UK has officially announced its intention to legislate a "graduated response" system for P2P copyright infringement, though it sounds remarkably balanced compared to some proposals; the government insists that the "availability of legal content in the forms that consumers want" is actually the most important step content owners can take to address the problem. Disconnection of users without a court order appears not to be on the table, either... The Open Rights Group, which is still working through the report, is already expressing concern that consumers' views aren't being reflected. "We are concerned that there is no suggestion that consumers and citizens should be represented on the proposed copyright 'Rights Agency'," says the group. "Without our voices, such an agency could easily be dominated by industry’s concerns at the expense of civil rights. Consumer[s] would be very likely to get a bad deal."

2009-01-29 - BBC News - Mixed reaction to digital plans

Summary: Reaction to the publication of Lord Carter's interim report on Digital Britain has been swift. The 86-page report sets out ambitious targets for the government to make broadband ubiquitous across the UK, reform radio spectrum, and sort out public broadcasting... Other parts of the plans worried some activists. In particular, plans to more closely police what people do when there is broadband running at higher speeds has raised concerns with the UK's Open Rights Group (ORG)... "We are concerned that there is no suggestion that consumers and citizens should be represented on the proposed copyright Rights Agency," said Jim Killock, director of the ORG. "Without our voices, such an agency could easily be dominated by industry's concerns - at the expense of consumer and civil rights," he said. "Consumers would be very likely to get a bad deal." He added: "We also intend to look closely at proposals for recording and reporting alleged rights infringers. While we welcome the proposal to ask the courts before taking action, we are concerned at the potential for further erosion of privacy online."

2009-01-20 - MediaWeek - Media industry should not encourage brands to behave illegally

Author: Tess Alps

Summary: How would you feel if you uploaded a video of your toddler dancing to a track, only to find yourself being sued for infringement of copyright by the major media corporation that owned it? This is just one example of many challenges that copyright protection is facing. At the recent Westminster Media Forum seminar Digital Britain, Becky Hogge from the Open Rights Group did her best to claim the moral high ground on behalf of consumers by using that true toddler story above (Prince/Universal) and another about a knitting pattern for an Ood (an alien race in Dr Who) published online, where the rights belonged to BBC Worldwide, owner of Dr Who.

2009-01-16 - BBC News - Legal downloads swamped by piracy

Summary: Ninety-five per cent of music downloaded online is illegal, a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has said. The global music trade body said this is its biggest challenge as artists and record companies miss out on payments... Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: "We are worried by the recording industry's desire to clamp down on illicit file sharers. "We need to see how much better these companies do by getting their services right before governments start pushing drastic and draconian laws forward." He added: "Growing online sales show the recording industry can win against illicit file sharing. If companies go further and offer the same sort of experience as P2P then they will win new revenues, and reduce copyright infringement, which we would welcome."

2009-01-15 - ZDNet - Campaign calls for diversity in engineering

Author: David Meyer

Summary: The field of engineering is, proportionately speaking, low on women, ethnic minorities and the disabled. Ergo, the Royal Society of Engineering has launched its Diversity in Engineering Campaign, fronted by none other than the recently-honoured Professor, Dame etc Wendy Hall of the University of Southampton... It all dovetails quite nicely with another campaign, started by Open Rights Group founder Suw Charman-Anderson, to institute Ada Lovelace Day in honour of one of the pioneers of programming. Charman-Anderson hoped to sign up 1,000 bloggers to write about Lovelace on the 24th of March - she already has a hundred over target, and we're more than two months away.

2009-01-13 - BBC News - Digital rights war looms ahead

Author: Maggie Shiels

Summary: The future of digital entertainment rights could turn into a battleground for control in the coming months ... Any new generation of digital rights management is likely to be unpopular with consumers, thinks civil liberties organisation the Open Rights Group. Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, said: "Consumers don't like DRM. They want to be able to play their movies on their computer, ipod, or whatever device they've bought, and DRM gets in the way. If movie sellers make it difficult for consumers to play their movies, then they will sell less films."

2009-01-11 - ZeroPaid - ZeroPaid Interviews Open Rights Group

Author: DrewWilson

Summary: Many things have been happening surrounding your rights on the internet and a number of these things are occurring in Britain. We interviewed Open Rights Group to get a better idea of what things have been like and what things might be like in 2009. It's been quite a year in 2008 for British citizens. There's plenty of issues surrounding privacy and digital rights that have been either ongoing or starting up in 2008 that almost makes it a promise that people in 2009 will see interesting things happen. In the process, the Open Rights Group (ORG) is also getting a new executive director. So, in order to catch up on what's going on, we interviewed ORG's Becky Hogge and Jim Killock.

[edit] 2008

[edit] December

2008-12-29 - The Irish Independent - The aXXo files

Summary: To Hollywood executives, he's public enemy number one. To film fans around the world, he's a modern-day Robin Hood. As the internet's most prolific pirate makes his 1,000th illegal film download available to the masses, Tim Walker investigates the mysterious figure known only as aXXo... The biggest problem for anti-piracy groups is the growing social acceptability of illegal filesharing. "The easier you make it for people to download, the more people do it," says Price, "and the less moral or ethical concerns they have about it. I talk to teachers and solicitors who'll say they streamed something from the internet, without realising it's illegitimate." The entertainment industry is still seen as bloated and greedy. Downloading movies is an apparently victimless crime, and if there is a victim, it's "The Man". "We also never see how their data is calculated," says Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a civil liberties group devoted to the digital universe. "Policymakers trot out figures, but we're never sure of their provenance. There is a meme sloshing around that suggests they overestimate the numbers. They used to equate the cost of piracy to the [entertainment] industry as a multiple of how many files were being shared illicitly online, which assumes that if you didn't get the stuff for free, you'd go out and buy all of it - which simply doesn't hold."

2008-12-27 - Bloomberg.com - Beatles Violinist Cries for Help as Copyright Ends

Author: Kristen Schweizer

Summary: Patrick Halling is fighting to keep the few pence he earns every time The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” airs on the radio. The Beatles song was released in 1966 and under European Union law will enter the public domain in 2016, meaning Halling’s violin-led string background on the song will lose its copyright protection and royalties will end... “Labels have vast back catalogues and each of those labels will be in receipt of millions of euros” if the law were to change, said Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a London-based organization that campaigns for digital rights. “Recorded music and royalties are also not a pension fund and should not be relied on as a pension fund.”

2008-12-18 - FT.com - Yahoo outshines rivals on data privacy

Author: Tim Bradshaw

Summary: Yahoo has stepped up pressure on Google and Microsoft’s online privacy policies after announcing that it would remove personally identifiable information from its database after 90 days. Yahoo currently anonymises user log data after 13 months, compared to nine months for Google search data. Microsoft keeps its users’ search data for 18 months but had pledged to lower that to six months if other search engines did the same... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a campaigning organisation in London said: “Limiting how much personal data you collect, what you process it for, and how long it’s retained are key data protection principles.”

2008-12-16 - BBC News - Directors demand film piracy ban

Summary: Some of the biggest names in film and TV have called on the government to prevent internet piracy. Kenneth Branagh and Richard Curtis are among the directors and producers who have signed a letter demanding action be taken on illegal file sharing... Becky Hogge, executive director of digital rights campaign body Open Rights Group, said: "The Open Rights Group does not condone illicit file sharing, but pushing the problem onto internet service providers is not going to make it go away. The creative industries need to play their part too, by making content available in ways consumers in the digital age want to watch it. Illicit file sharing is a business-model problem as much as it is a law enforcement one."

2008-12-12 - Ars Technica - UK ignores logic, backs 20-year music copyright extension

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: After a UK government-led commission said that the current 50-year term for musical copyrights was fine, and the government last year publicly agreed that there was no need to extend the term, culture minister Andy Burnham yesterday made the logical follow-up announcement that yes, the government would now push for a 20-year extension on copyright. Turns out, it's the moral thing to do... In both the UK and EU cases, the worry is that most of the money will actually go to labels and to the richest artists like Sir Cliff. The Open Rights Group, which is bitterly opposed to extension, claims that 80 percent of all artists would receive under €30/year from the EU plan, while music labels would share 90 percent of the cash coming in.

2008-12-09 - The Guardian - Internet ban on 'child p*rn' album sleeve

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: Britain's rules on internet censorship have come under scrutiny following a decision to block pages on Wikipedia after a page on the site showing the image of a naked young girl on an album cover from 1976 was declared "potentially illegal"... "The question is how far this episode challenges current UK practice around censoring content online," said Becky Hogge of campaign organisation the Open Rights Group.

2008-12-08 - Metro - Net nannies break Wikipedia in album cover kerfuffle

Author: Tom Phillips

Summary: Several major Internet Service Providers have managed to break Wikipedia for a large number of British internet users after they started quietly censoring its content - apparently because the encyclopaedia contains a tasteless album cover by a seventies German heavy metal band... Becky Hogge, Executive Director of the digital civil liberties organisation The Open Rights Group, said: 'Consumers ended up trapped between two content regulations systems - the ISP's and Wikipedia's. To their credit, Wikipedia were more transparent - there's a public discussion going on there about how to deal with the situation.'

2008-12-01 - Ars Technica - UK consumers, Big Content battle over three-strikes rules

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: Although France's "graduated response" proceedings have attracted the most attention, the UK is in the midst of a consultation of its own on how to involve both content owners and ISPs in some sort of response to P2P file-sharing. ... UK digital rights groups are appalled, however. In its comments to BERR (PDF), the Open Rights Group tried to depict the issue largely as a business issue, not a criminal one (as noncommercial song-swapping is a civil offense only). ... So what about creating a third party that would judge the requests for information? We already have one, says ORG, and it's called the legal system. A new process would likely be just as expensive for everyone involved, something that UK Music admits as well.

[edit] November

2008-11-25 - The Guardian - Cory Doctorow: willing science fiction into fact

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: Cory Doctorow's office lies behind a featureless, black security door in a north London side street, deep in a converted post-industrial warehouse, down echoing corridors and concrete stairways... As one of the founders of the Boing Boing blog, and a columnist for the Guardian's technology site, Doctorow is no stranger to contemporary debates on internet security, electronic copyright and privacy. A fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Doctorow also serves on the board of the Open Rights Group and the Participatory Culture Foundation.

2008-11-19 - Telecom TV - '3 Strikes' could be back for a second innings warn rights groups

Author: Ian Scales

Summary: The important amendments to the European Parliament's Telecoms Package, passed at the end of September, may end up being for nothing if the Commission and the Parliament 'do a deal', say observers... To add to the suspicion, the UK's Open Rights Group points out that those good amendments have apparently been deleted by the Commission in the proposed final text... Just to reinforce the real and current danger posed by the Telecoms Package, the Open Rights Group has completed a legal analysis and says it provides a set of "crucial obligations' on Europe's telecoms companies and ISPs to "co-operate" with the copyright industries. It shows how the various tendrils of the package could all be brought together at the end of the process to give a green light to European governments to proceed with 3 strikes laws.

2008-11-18 - IAB UK - Online advertising ‘does not compromise privacy’

Summary: After a lively debate in a packed Grand Committee Room at the House of Commons last night, the Parliamentary Debating Group and assembled audience voted to oppose the motion “online advertising compromises privacy”... [Next] was Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a grassroots campaign for civil liberties in the digital world. “I’m not here to debate that advertising is an intrusion”, Hogge began. Indeed she explained that she was there to oppose what she sees as “something more sinister”, namely “the harnessing of data about our browsing habits online”. Hogge’s argument centred around “the right to disclose selectively”. She attacked Walmsley’s comments about “geeks and technofiles” and argued that it shows “advertisers are falling into the trap of thinking they are cleverer than consumers”. For her the crucial point is that providers are “intercepting” communications “to sell advertising”. This she said is “as bad for advertisers as it is for the market”.

2008-11-13 - The Stage - The Stage: Insight

Author: Kay Smith

Summary: The EU Commission has accepted proposals to extend musician’s copyright from 50 to 95 years, despite unfavourable independent reports and fierce campaigning from the Open Rights Group.

Note: Doesn't seem to be available online.

2008-11-05 - Mac User - ORG: file sharing talks have locked out" consumers

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: Consumers have been locked out of discussions on how to tackle unauthorised file sharing, according to the Open Rights Group's contribution to the government's consultation process.

[edit] October

2008-10-27 - PC Pro - E-voting vetoed for 2009 election

Author: Stuart Turton

Summary: The Government says it has no plans to roll out e-voting for the next election, potentially signalling an end to its interest in the technology... Trials of the technology have already drawn heavy criticism, with its use in London's 2008 mayoral election described by the Open Rights Group as "weak in design and testing."

2008-10-17 - Computer World UK - Government backtracks on electronic surveillance plans

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: The proposal, in the Communications Data Bill, would allow the government to collect data on phone calls and other electronic communication. The government planned to put the proposal in Parliament's upcoming legislative agenda, but opted instead on Wednesday to conduct a consultation next year due to concerns about intrusive monitoring of private citizens. "It's a sensitive issue, and there needs to be a proper public debate," a Home Office spokesman said. ... The Open Rights Group, a pressure group that monitors Internet-related privacy and legal issues, said it supported the government's decision for a consultation. "Creating this database would drastically alter the relationship between the citizen and the state, handing national security and law enforcement agencies immense power to invade the private lives of ordinary people," wrote Becky Hogge, the group's executive director.

2008-10-16 - PC World - UK Slows Down Plan for Sweeping Electronic Surveillance

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: The British government is slowing down a proposal that would give law enforcement sweeping power to collect electronic data as a measure to prevent terrorism. ... The Open Rights Group, a nongovernmental group that monitors Internet-related privacy and legal issues, said it supported the government's decision for a consultation. "Creating this database would drastically alter the relationship between the citizen and the state, handing national security and law enforcement agencies immense power to invade the private lives of ordinary people," wrote Becky Hogg, the group's executive director.

Note: Also reprinted in Macworld, [Computerworld]

2008-10-08 - The Guardian - Democracy needs spontaneity

Author: John Ozimek

Summary: Fear not Freedom day will publicise our drift towards a surveillance society, as our freedom to demonstrate is being undermined. ... This Saturday is Fear not Freedom day. It is a day intended to publicise our gradual drift toward a surveillance society - not just in the UK, but across Europe. Some 23 countries are likely to be participating in activities of one form or another. In the UK, one event will take place in Parliament Square. It will be a collage of photos intended to illustrate the extent of surveillance, and will be organised by NO2ID and the Open Rights Group. It is an arts event. An image. Whatever else it is, it is not a demonstration.

[edit] September

2008-09-26 - Ars Technica - EU Parliament: Only judges can order 'Net disconnections

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: France's much talked about "three strikes" law receive a spirited non! from the European Parliament this week, but French and EU officials are already claiming that the vote won't ultimately impact so-called "graduated response" schemes. The EU Parliament voted Wednesday to pass the "Telecom Package," a major overhaul of European telecom rules that will turn the entire region into a single market for the purposes of selling mobile, landline, and Internet services... Hundreds of amendments were tabled, making the entire legislative process difficult to follow, but two of the key changes proposed were Amendments 133 and 138. As the UK's Open Rights Group points out, 133 would have prevented EU countries from requiring local ISPs to filter content.

2008-09-26 - Audioholics - EU 45 Year Copyright Extension Plan to Net Aging Musicians a Cool €30

Author: David Waratuke

Summary: With compact disc sales tanking year over year and recording artist long abused by the system becoming independent via the Internet, the recording industry is in a world wide frenzy to grab whatever source of cash they can. Looking to get the kind of copyright extension that they enjoy in the States, courtesy of Sonny Bono and Mickey Mouse, the recording industry has recently convinced the European Commission (EC) that an additional 45 years of copyright are just what poor, aging musicians need to make it through their Golden Years. Responding to a request for comments on the EU copyright proposal from the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), the UK based Open Rights Group (ORG) has taken a bit harder look at music industry claims about who actually benefits from copyright than the EC.

2008-09-08 - Ars Technica - 80% of artists would get <€30/year from copyright extension

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: The EU is considering a plan to extend musical copyrights for another 45 years, ostensibly to help out aging performers who are being cut off when the current 50-year terms expire. But those musicians (can someone introduce them to the concept of saving for retirement?) won't see much of the new cash, according to the UK's Open Rights Group. Most performers will make less than €30 a year, even as major labels and big stars take far more. ... Given the EU's proposal, ORG can't help but wonder if facts weren't the primary determinant in choosing to go forward with a term extension fight; the evidence "strongly suggests that [the Commission] has been swayed by special-interest lobbying," says the group.

2008-09-08 - OUT-LAW.COM - Copyright changes would only earn fifty cents a year for artists, say activists

Summary: The European Commission's proposal to extend copyright protection for musicians is a windfall for record companies that will net performers as little as €0.50 a year, according to a digital rights pressure group. The Open Rights Group (ORG) has produced an analysis of the figures used by the Commission itself to conclude that the move is designed to benefit the music industry and not, as Commissioner Charlie McCreevy asserts, performers. The ORG figures show that all but the top 20% of earning performers in the music industry can expect to earn between an extra 59 cents and €26.79 a year under the extension from 50 to 95 years. Record labels, though, will earn an extra €200,000 to €4.1 million a year each under the new scheme, it said. "Now at least we get to the heart of the matter that this is a windfall for record labels," said ORG's research.

[edit] August

2008-08-19 - Reuters Blogs - Is file-sharing morally wrong?

Author: Peter Griffiths

Summary: A woman who shared a pinball game online has been ordered to pay 16,000 pounds in compensation and legal costs to its creator. ... Cracking down on file sharers will simply drive them further underground, making it even harder for companies to make money out of their content, according to contributors on the Open Rights Group website.

2008-08-19 - BBC - Game sharers face legal crackdown

Summary: A British woman who put a game on a file-sharing network has been ordered to pay damages to the game's creator. Topware Interactive has won more than £16,000 following legal action against the woman who shared a copy of Dream Pinball 3D. ... Becky Hogge, director of the Open Rights Group that campaigns on cyber liberties issues, said: "An open court process with a full report is certainly preferable to justice of the type being mooted by the government on P2P, where activity takes place behind closed doors through industry action." She added that awards for damages had to be realistic and not made to act as a "deterrent". "In relation to the orders for release of personal data, it is important that court processes do not become rubberstamps for industry action but retain judicial safeguards and independence," said Ms Hogge.

2008-08-01 - The Register - Electoral Commission criticises London e-counting

Summary: The Electoral Commission has registered concerns over the electronic counting of votes in London's recent elections. ... Its findings reflect those of an earlier (pdf) from the Open Rights Group, which it accredited as an observer to the elections. This says that over-sensitive scanners could have caused some blank ballots to record votes, and that the screens by the scanners provided data that was meaningless to observers.

[edit] July

2008-07-31 - Kable - Commission joins e-count critics

Summary: The Electoral Commission has registered concerns over the electronic counting of votes in London's recent elections. It highlights a number of issues in a report on the elections for the mayor and the London Assembly. Among these are apparent discrepancies between the number of ballot papers recorded as having been issued and the number scanned. ... Its findings reflect those of an earlier report from the Open Rights Group, which it accredited as an observer to the elections. This says that over-sensitive scanners could have caused some blank ballots to record votes, and that the screens by the scanners provided data that was meaningless to observers.

2008-07-25 - The Sun - You a music pirate, son?

Author: Leon Watson

Summary: Hundreds of of thousands of kids face being grilled by their parents — as warning letters are sent to internet music pirates. ... But Becky Hogge, chief executive of consumer champions Open Rights Group, said: "This is a disproportionate response." "It will have the effect of driving illicit file sharing further underground."

At least 66 news sources around the world ran The Associated Press article that contained quotes from Becky.

2008-07-24 - The Telegraph - Parents face fines if children illegally download music or films from web

Author: Robert Winnett and Nicole Martin

Summary: Parents face having their internet viewing restricted if their children continue to illegally download music or films, under a Government-backed crackdown. ... Becky Hogge, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for internet freedom, said: "Disconnection is not a good option - either for internet users or for the artists whose livelihoods are harmed by illicit file-sharing." "Not only is the punishment disproportionate to the crime, in most households, an internet connection is shared by a number of people. What's more, as soon as law enforcers start snooping for IP addresses to pass on to ISPs for disconnection, hardcore file-sharers will simply start using encryption and IP-masking to obfuscate their identities."

2008-07-24 - The Guardian - Transcript from BPI call with journalists this morning

Author: Charles Arthur

Summary: A (rough) transcript of what the BPI said. No per-month "tax"; and both up- and downloaders will be targeted with "hundreds of thousands" of letters ... Q: The Open Rights Group says consumers' voices haven't been heard in this, just industry. GT: we don't have to worry about groups not making their views heard, the consultation is going on, government was alive to the interests of consumers. We as an industry are very focused on finding ways to with this problem. But we can't duck this issue. It's vital to the future.

2008-07-24 - BBC Radio 4 Today Show - Internet firms tackle music piracy

Summary: Six of the UK's biggest internet service providers are believed to be backing a government plan to tackle music piracy online. Andy Burnham, culture secretary, musician Billy Bragg and Becky Hodge, of consumers' digital rights campaign the Open Rights Group, discuss whether this will stop the illegal downloading of music files.

2008-07-22 - Ars Technica - Experts attack Big Content's EU copyright power-grab

Author: Nate Anderson

Summary: Now that the EU plan to retroactively add 45 years of copyright protection to old sound recordings looks set to keep the work of the 50s and 60s locked up for another half century, resistance is solidifying... The UK's Open Rights Group has some strong words of its own for the plan, which it sees as more of a rights grab than an attempt to help poverty-stricken musicians. "While granting unending intellectual property rights may sound good," said the group, "a fair and balanced approach means that legislators must avoid dismissing economic rationale and the traps of faith based policy and voodoo economics that simply grant IP rightsholders requests for more."

2008-07-18 - ZDNet - E-voting flawed in London election, say campaigners

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: Digital rights campaigners have repeated assertions that the May 2008 London mayoral election results were potentially flawed due to e-voting problems. The mayoral elections were won by Conservative candidate Boris Johnson. However, Open Rights Group (ORG) campaigners asserted that as many as 41,000 votes could have been miscounted, and that the final result could, therefore, have been skewed.

2008-07-17 - Computer Active - EU moves to extend copyright for performers

Author: Dinah Greek

Summary: Musicians will retain copyright on sound recordings for 95 years if proposals from the European Commission (EC) are made law. ... However ,opponents argue that sound recordings of 50 years old or more should be released from copyright in order to benefit all society. A review carried out in 2006 for the UK Government by Andrew Gowers, former editor of the Financial Times, dismissed the music industry’s call for this extension; he even said he had considered shortening the term. His decision to leave it at 50 years was backed by an EC report on copyright, The Recasting of Copyright & Related Rights for the Knowledge Economy as well as the Open Rights Group and some musicians' groups. They argue that not only will it stifle creativity but the record labels, rather than the performers, are the ones most likely to benefit

2008-07-07 - BBC News - Europe votes on anti-piracy laws

Summary: Europeans suspected of putting movies and music on file-sharing networks could be thrown off the web under proposals before Brussels. The powers are in a raft of laws that aim to harmonise the regulations governing Europe's telecom markets... The UK's Open Rights Group said the laws would be "disproportionate and ineffective".

2008-07-06 - The Register - Europe drafts law to disconnect suspected filesharers

Author: Jan Libbenga

Summary: France has suggested an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package, which would bar broadband access to anyone who persists in illegally downloading music or films... Action groups Netzpolitik.org, Open Rights Group and La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) have been actively campaigning on the issue. They believe the amendments will "pave the way for the monitoring and filtering of the internet by private companies, exceptional courts and Orwellian technical measures".

2008-07-04 - Hendon Times - Polling allegations to be investigated

Author: Kevin Bradford

Summary: Problems at the polls during this year's London elections will be investigated as part of a review of the election process. The London Assembly's elections review committee will look into reasons why ballot papers arrived late to five polling stations in Mill Hill and investigate claims that some residents were unable to vote for up to an hour at one location in Friern Barnet... The review will also investigate a claim made by the Open Rights Group (ORG) that problems with the counting technology could have resulted in up to 41,000 ballot papers being unaccounted for.

2008-07-03 - BBC News - Warning letters to 'file-sharers'

Summary: Virgin Media has sent about 800 letters to customers warning them that they should not be downloading illegal music files via file-sharing sites. ... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said the letters were a disproportionate response from the music industry. "We need to protect users from punitive measures," she said. She said the music industry had to be in a position of offering a viable alternative before it clamped down on the activities of some users. "Stopping illicit file-sharing might not be as effective a measure as trying to monetise it," she said.

2008-07-02 - This Is London - Investigation launched into '41,000 missing votes'

Summary: An investigation has been launched into claims that there is "insufficient evidence" that the results of London elections were accurate. The London Assembly Elections Review Committee will question individuals and institutions responsible for administering May's vote and count at a City Hall meeting on July 17. The Open Rights Group, which raised concerns about the way the poll was conducted, will also give evidence.

2008-07-02 - 24dash - Thousands of ballots 'miscounted' in London Mayoral election

Author: Jon Land

Summary: The legitimacy of Boris Johnson's victory in the London Mayoral elections was today thrown into question by a new report into how the count was carried out. According to the report, published by the Open Rights Group, electronic voting methods used in the May ballot could have miscounted up to 41,000 ballot papers. The ORG report stated: “There is insufficient evidence available to allow independent observers to state reliably whether the results declared in the May 2008 elections for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly are an accurate representation of voters’ intentions.”

2008-07-02 - PC Pro - London election "lost up to 41,000 votes"

Author: Matthew Sparkes

Summary: Electronic voting methods used in the recent London Mayoral elections may have miscounted or mislaid up to 41,000 ballots, claims the Open Rights Group... "On count day, efforts towards transparency around the recording of valid votes were nothing more than a pretence: hundreds of screens were set up by the scanners to show almost meaningless data to observers, party candidates and agents, while officials admit that underneath the system was likely to be recording blank ballots as valid votes," says a report from the ORG.

2008-07-02 - Guardian Technology - London mayoral election: doubts over 41,000 votes counted by machine

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: The results of the London mayoral elections have been called into question after independent observers cast doubt on the hi-tech process used to count ballot papers. A report today from the Open Rights Group (ORG), which closely monitors the use of electronic voting systems, claims that problems with the technology could have resulted in as many as 41,000 ballots going unaccounted for in the May elections. "The system threw up a number of problems and an unacceptable level of uncertainty," said Becky Hogge, executive director of the organisation, which campaigns on technological issues that affect members of the public.

[edit] June

2008-06-19 - Guardian Technology - Call Doctor Who: BBC's Highfield stuck in a time warp

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: Never let it be said that the BBC's head of digital Ashley Highfield is behind the times. In a posting on the BBC website today, he ponders the question of net neutrality and whether ISPs should have any liability for illegal content that is being shared on their networks. A hot topic, to be sure... Not only that, but the response he quotes at length from the Open Rights Group, which he says was issued "last week" was actually from (yes) two years ago (July 2006, to be precise.)

2008-06-12 - The Word Magazine - Hello. Here comes a music tax

Author: David Hepworth

Summary: In other words the music industry would get the people who run ISPs or manufacture iPods to pay them a sum of money to compensate them for the loss of revenue that these technologies entail. I'm no lawyer but I don't see how this can work. ... The BPI's argument is here. The counter-argument, from the Open Rights Group, is here. What do you think?

2008-06-10 - Computer Weekly BCS urges opt-in policy for Phorm to build trust

Author: Justin Richards

Summary: The British Computer Society (BCS) is urging Phorm and other profile-based internet advertising systems to adopt an "opt-in" approach to help build consumer trust... The Foundation for Information Policy Research and the Open Rights Group, a campaigning organisation that raises the awareness of digital rights and civil liberties issues, has produced an analysis of Phorm's system, highlighting potential privacy issues.

2008-06-06 - PC Pro - Virgin begins file-sharing offensive

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: Virgin Media and the British Phonographic Institute are to begin sending warning letters to Virgin broadband subscribers who they allege have been illegally sharing music files... A Virgin spokesman [says], "We want people to enjoy music online without infringing the rights of musicians and music companies. This campaign is about helping our customers understand how they can do this." But the ISP is not yet threatening to disconnect persistent sharers, though it will warn them that this is a possibility... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group says that she welcomes Virgin's commitment not to disconnect its customers, but warned the threats may yet cause problems: "A hard core of dedicated illicit file-sharers will instantly route around any IP sniffing that goes on by using encryption. Then they'll develop tools for less tech-savvy users to take advantage of encryption. And then we'll be back where we started."

2008-06-04 - Computeract!ve - Facebook lets people “sniff out their friends”

Author: Andrea-Marie Vassou

Summary: People will soon be able to find their friends using their mobile phone signals... It works through similar technology used by the police to track down suspects or missing children via their mobile phone... However, Michael Holloway, a representative for privacy organisation the Open Rights Group, warned that the technology could be dangerous. He said: "The technology to track people via their phones has been available for quite some time, but as with all systems, the devil is in the detail, of which we are unaware. One interesting and useful implication of Sniff would be addressing the concept of 'friend' in the context of social networks, which has been until now largely meaningless.”

[edit] May

2008-05-22 - New Statesman - Protected species

Author: Becky Hogge

Summary: The story was so British it hurt. A keen knitter, who also happened to be a Doctor Who fan, designed a set of knitting patterns and posted them on her blog so that other knitters, who might also be keen Doctor Who fans, could knit their favourite characters from the current series. Not David Tennant or Catherine Tate, but the Adiposes - little creatures bred from human fat by an alien "Nanny" - and the Oods - a telepathic race lobotomised and subjected to willing slavery by the humans of the 25th century. But you will know the story of Doctor Who and the knitting by now. It was so British that when my organisation, the Open Rights Group, publicised it, it went national almost instantly.

2008-05-20 - Age Concern - Monster knitter warned

Author: Adfero Ltd

Summary: A Dr Who fan who created and gave away online knitting patterns for the show's monsters has been told to remove them from her website. ... Following the warning the sci-fi fan approached the Open Rights Group for advice and it publicised her case. This week the BBC replied, saying: "We are not heavy-handed when it comes to fans creating their own products out of a love for the show."

2008-05-19 - Experian QAS - Data privacy groups attack planned employers' 'black-list'

Summary: Data security experts and workers' organisations have hit out at plans to introduce an online database which would allow employers to list former employees accused of misconduct. ... However, according to the NGO The Open Rights Group, such a database would "undermine the courts" and allow employers to punish former workers in a "non-judicial manner". Becky Hogge, executive director of the organisation, explained: "This proposal seems like it is wide-open to being abused against both workplace rights activists and whistle-blowers. A throwback to darker times made all the more sinister with 21st-century data-breach and mining technologies. She added: "The Information Commissioner's powers are weak and ineffectual, and his office is completely without the resources to police and act as an alternative 'after the fact' industrial tribunal, which appears to be what is proposed."

2008-05-18 - Sunday Herald - The sorry yarn about Dr Who’s Knitted Ood™

Author: Roxanne Sorooshian

Summary: Beware, Dr Who fans. Auntie Beeb can get heavy if you mess with The Brand. So discovered a 26-year-old, known only by her online moniker Mazzmatazz, who became embroiled in a row with the corporation last week over knitting patterns. ... Her case was publicised by the Open Rights Group, a lobbying organisation specialising in digital rights issues. Executive director Becky Hogge said: "In the offline world, what she's doing would be fine. But because she's doing it online, which is a public space, it causes a problem." Best hide behind the sofa.

2008-05-17 - The Times - BBC chiefs soften over Doctor Who fan's toys

Author: Dan Sabbag

Summary: A report in The Times and a very British public outcry yesterday persuaded the BBC to adopt the knitting patterns used to create the Doctor Who monsters - instead of threatening to force them out of existence. ... Becky Hogge, from the Open Rights Group, said: "This is great news for Mazzmatazz, but this does not change the law. It is very easy for media companies to threaten fans of their content, and we'd like the law changed to give fans more rights".

2008-05-15 - The Stage - Woolly Thinking

Author: Mark Wright

Summary: A Doctor Who fan who is known only as Mazzmatazz has fallen foul of the BBC’s legal arm for posting some really very cute knitting patterns on the internet, giving instructions on how to knit your very own Ood or adorable Adipose. ... “We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off hand-bags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future.” Becky Hodge, executive director of the open rights group, has said in relation to this story.

2008-05-15 - Channel 4 - Knitter needles the BBC

Summary: A Doctor Who fan has been told by the BBC to stop producing knitting patterns from the sci-fi TV series. The Open Rights Group, an advocacy organisation for civil and consumer rights, is helping to publicise the case. Becky Hogge, the group's executive director, said: "We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off handbags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future."

2008-05-15 - ITV - Knitter needles the BBC

Summary: BBC Worldwide contacted "Mazzmatazz", after she began creating patterns of creatures like the Ood and the Adipose for her online knitting circle. ... The Open Rights Group, an advocacy organisation for civil and consumer rights, is helping to publicise the case. Becky Hogge, the group's executive director, said: "We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off handbags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future.

2008-05-15 - The Sun - Beeb tries to extermi-knit!

Author: Colin Robertson

Summary: A DOCTOR Who fan has been banned from giving away KNITTING patterns of the show’s characters. ... Ood ... stitched up ... Becky Hogge of campaigners The Open Rights Group, which advised her, said: "It is not causing the BBC to lose money. It is actually enriching their output."

2008-05-14 - United Press International - Fan knits tribute to 'Dr. Who,' BBC irked

Summary: A British fan of the long-running BBC show "Doctor Who" was threatened with legal action for creating knitted versions of the show's monsters. ... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group -- a British organization that advocates on digital rights and civil liberties issues -- suggested copyright law needs to be changed to protect fan tributes to popular movies, TV shows and books. "We need to recognize that there is a difference between selling knock-off hand-bags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future," said Hogge.

2008-05-14 - RTE - Beeb bans Dr Who fan's knitting patterns

Summary: The BBC has told a 'Doctor Who' fan to stop making knitting patterns based on the TV series. ... The Open Rights Group, which advocates for civil and consumer rights in the UK, has supported the 'Dr Who' fan. A spokeswoman said: "We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off handbags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future.

2008-05-14 - Web User - Doctor Who aliens spark online row

Summary: A Doctor Who fan has removed knitting patterns of characters from the TV show from her website after a request from the BBC. ... While Becky Hogge, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, wrote: "The approach the BBC have taken with Mazz's knitting patterns demonstrates a distinct lack of flexibility." "It is quite possible that through transforming the characters in Doctor Who into knitting patterns, Mazz may have infringed upon the BBC's copyright. But it's hard to see how Mazz's non-commercial knitting patterns actually damage the commercial interests of the BBC."

2008-05-14 - Metro - Dr Who knitter 'crossed the line', says BBC

Summary: A Doctor Who fan has been told by the BBC to stop producing knitting patterns from the sci-fi TV series ... The Open Rights Group, an advocacy organisation for civil and consumer rights, is helping to publicise the case. Becky Hogge, the group's executive director, said: "We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off handbags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future."

2008-05-14 - Daily Mail - BBC monsters Dr Who fan for creating internet knitting patterns of the sci-fi series' characters

Summary: At first glance it is hard to tell what they are. But these knitted blobs have landed one unsuspecting Dr Who fan in hot water with the BBC. ... After her Dr Who patterns were discovered on the internet, Mazzmatazz was sent a letter by the BBC demanding she remove all the designs from her website. ... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which helped to publicise the case, said it illustrated the problems with copyright law. "This case illustrates what's wrong with copyright law in the digital age, it can't really discern between a breach by people sharing knitting patterns of popular characters or a guy on a market stall selling knock-off handbags." She said Mazz had not been selling either patterns or dolls and her activities had not harmed the BBC's commercial interests.

2008-05-14 - BBC - Dr Who fan in knitted puppet row

Summary: A Doctor Who fan is embroiled in a row with the BBC after she published knitting patterns for the sci-fi drama's monsters on the internet. ... Her case is being publicised by the Open Rights Group, a lobbying organisation which specialises in digital rights issues. ... Executive director Becky Hogge told BBC News: "She doesn't feel she's doing anything wrong yet she's being threatened with legal action." "In the offline world, what she'd be doing would be fine. But because she's doing it online, which is a public space, it causes a problem."

2008-05-14 - The Telegraph - Doctor Who's new enemy: the BBC lawyers

Author: Andy Bloxham

Summary: A Doctor Who fan who gave away knitting patterns which created vague recreations of the programme's aliens has been threatened with legal action by the BBC for copyright infringement. ... Legal experts said the case showed the changing nature of copyright on the internet. ... Becky Hogge, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, which helped to publicise the case, said: "We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off hand-bags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future."

2008-05-13 - The Times - Alien knitting patterns undo Dr Who fan

Author: Dan Sabbagh

Summary: A Doctor Who fan who created knitting patterns for the programme’s monsters and gave them away online has been told by the BBC to stop or face the threat of court action. Becky Hogge, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, which helped to publicise the case after trying to advise Mazzmatazz, said: "We need to recognise that there is a difference between selling knock-off hand-bags in the market, and fans who are making tributes and contributing to creativity in the future."

[edit] April

2008-04-11 - BBC - Europe rejects anti-piracy plans

Summary: European politicians have voted down calls to throw suspected file-sharers off the net. The idea to cut off persistent pirates formed part of a wide-ranging report on creative industries written for the European parliament. the Open Rights Group, it does "signify resistance" among European law makers to the strict measures that nations such as France are implementing.

2008-04-11 - ITPro - EU rejects file-sharing laws

Summary: The European Parliament threw out attempts to criminalise file sharing in a plenary vote yesterday. Although not legally binding, the 'no' vote is expected to hamper plans on the part of some governments in Europe to introduce a 'three-strikes' rule that would force internet service providers (ISPs) to ban users found sharing copyrighted files of music, TV shows or films via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. ... The Open Rights Group (ORG) backed the decision and observed: "The report is not legally binding, but it does signify resistance among MEPs to measures currently being implemented in France to disconnect suspected illicit file sharers."

2008-04-11 - The Inquirer - EU Parliament rejects file sharing ban

Author: Nick Farrell

Summary: The eu parliment narrowly threw out a vote that would have banned file sharing by private individuals and decided against banning copyright abusers from the Internet. ... The move has been at the instigation of France, which already has similar laws in place ... Many observers, including the UK-based Open Rights Group, expect it to push for EU-wide rules similar to its own.

2008-04-11 - Slashdot - Europe Rejects Plan To Criminalize File-Sharing

Summary: Lineker points out a report that the European Parliament has rejected plans to criminalize file-sharing by private individuals. The amendment to remove the anti-piracy measures passed by a vote of 314-297. The decision is expected to influence how France, with its strict anti-piracy polices, approaches this issue when it assumes the EU presidency later this year. From InfoWorld: "France's so-called Oliviennes strategy to combat copyright abuse includes a 'three strikes and you are out' approach: Offenders lose the right to an Internet account after being caught sharing copyright-protected music over the Internet for a third time. The report is significant because it 'signifies resistance among MEPs to measures currently being implemented in France to disconnect suspected illicit filesharers,' the Open Rights Group said in a statement.

2008-04-10 - The Register - Civil liberties groups challenge Data Retention Directive in ECJ

Summary: UK groups the Open Rights Group (ORG), Statewatch and Privacy International, amongst 40 others, have submitted their arguments in support of Ireland's ongoing case to have the Directive repealed.

2008-04-09 - OUT-LAW - Civil liberties groups challenge Data Retention Directive in ECJ

Summary: European civil liberties groups have lodged an objection to the EU's Data Retention Directive with the European Court of Justice, claiming that the Directive breaches a fundamental right to privacy guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights. UK groups the Open Rights Group (ORG), Statewatch and Privacy International, amongst 40 others, have submitted their arguments in support of Ireland's ongoing case to have the Directive repealed.

2008-04-07 - ZDNet - Thinktank: Phorm a 'green light for lawbreaking'

Author: David Meyer

Summary: The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) said on Sunday that it hoped the Information Commissioner would "reconsider what appears to be a green light for lawbreaking". These words came after the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) made a long-awaited statement about the system, which is called Phorm. ... "We have had detailed discussions with Phorm. They assure us that their system does not allow the retention of individual profiles of sites visited and adverts presented, and that they hold no personally identifiable information on web users," the ICO said. "Indeed, Phorm assert that their system has been designed specifically to allow the appropriate targeting of adverts whilst rigorously protecting the privacy of web users. They clearly recognise the need to address the concerns raised by a number of individuals and organisations including the Open Rights Group."

2008-04-05 - The Scotsman - BT under fire over 'spyware'

Author: Matt Williams

Summary: Privacy campaigners criticised BT yesterday after the telecoms giant admitted "spying" on its broadband customers. The Open Rights Group said software BT used to track the web-browsing habits of 36,000 people was potentially illegal. The data watchdog, the Information Commissioner is now investigating, following a complaint. BT said spyware software developed by US firm Phorm was trialled on customers during 2006 and 2007.

2008-04-04 - Channel 4 News - BT condemned on internet 'spying'

Summary: Privacy campaigners have attacked BT after the telecoms giant admitted to "spying" on thousands of its broadband customers. The Open Rights Group said software used by the firm to track the web-browsing habits of 36,000 people was potentially illegal. Data watchdog the Information Commissioner is now looking into the affair following a complaint.

[edit] March

2008-03-18 - Information World Review - Phorm slammed as 'illegal'

Summary: Online advert system Phorm is in contravention of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and illegal in the UK, according to the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR). ... The Open Rights Group (ORG) recently raised concerns over potential privacy violations caused by the ad system Phorm. "Until we know exactly how Phorm works, and across whose networks our data will flow, speculation about the privacy implications will continue", said ORG in a statement.

2008-03-17 - The Market Research Industry - BT Accused of Bad Phorm

Summary: UK ‘phone giant BT is facing a possible lawsuit after it admitted using business customers’ data without permission, in a trial run for ‘Webwise’ software from analytics and ad-serving company Phorm. Others including Webfather Tim Berners-Lee have been joining the privacy debate.

2008-03-17 - Information Age - BT admits using customer data without consent

Summary: Telco confesses that test run for market analytics product Phorm used live customer data without permission; customers threaten lawsuit. ... Phorm, a web analytics package, has been accused of being ‘spy-ware’. The Open Rights Group (ORG) last week called for more details about Phorm – which has been trialled by BT, VirginMedia and TalkTalk – to be released to the public. ORG suspects that the software invades the privacy of web users. "Until we know exactly how Phorm works, and across whose networks our data will flow, speculation about the privacy implications will continue", said ORG.

2008-03-16 - BBC Click - The pros and cons of DRM

Summary: Is Digital Rights Management saving or killing music sales? Click's Spencer Kelly speaks to Richard Gooch from the International Federation of Phonographic Industry and Becky Hogge, director of the Open Rights Group.

2008-03-16 - Scotland on Sunday - True to Phorm

Summary: Internet service providers BT, Talk Talk and Virgin have opted into a trial of a new system that collects data about internet surfers' habits for advertising purposes. The Open Rights Group, a digital political campaign organisation, has complained that the system, called Phorm, violated the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act without benefiting customers.

2008-03-14 - Information World Review - Privacy group questions Phorm system

Author: Guy Dixon

Summary: The Open Rights Group has raised concerns over potential privacy violations caused by the Phorm advertising system. The monitoring system analyses users' surfing habits and is proving increasingly popular with ISPs looking to more accurately target subscribers with advertising. Talk Talk, Virgin and BT are all currently working with Phorm on a pilot basis.

Note: Also reprinted in WhatPc Privacy group questions Phorm system, CRN Privacy group questions Phorm system, IT Week Privacy group questions Phorm system, vnunet Privacy group questions Phorm system, Computing Privacy group questions Phorm system

2008-03-14 - Zero Paid - From Privacy to Censorship - Activists Have Their Hands Full

Summary: The Open Rights Group have recently compiled information related to the Phorm controversy. Essentially, Phorm is a technology employed by an Internet Service Provider to drop ads onto users browsers based on content being viewed. "On top of this, question marks are beginning to appear over Phorm’s compliance with the law. Can ISPs' employment of Phorm comply with the Data Protection Act?" Asks Open Rights Group poster Becky, "Is intercepting traffic in this manner an offence under section 1 of RIPA (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act)? The Information Commissioner has issued a statement (pdf) saying his office is making inquiries – but is this enough?" Open Rights Group then points to a petition with over 4,000 signatures which demands that the government stop ISPs from breaching privacy through advertising technologies. The last known case of an ISP trying to intercept the browsing experience and placing content over top of the requested page occurred in Canada where Rogers placed warning messages about users net usage late last year. ...

2008-03-13 - Digital Trends - Phorm's ad system is proving very controversial in the UK, and it hasn't even started yet

Author: Christopher Nickson

Summary: Phorm’s ad system is proving very controversial in the UK, and it hasn’t even started yet. ... the Open Rights Group (ORG) is demanding more details about Webwise. "Until we know exactly how Phorm works, and across whose networks our data will flow, speculation about the privacy implications will continue," the group said, and wondered openly if the system complied with the law, although a Home Office review concluded that it did, as long as users gave their permission and also agreed to new terms and conditions.

2008-03-12 - BBC - Open Rights Group questions Phorm

Summary: Campaign body the Open Rights Group (ORG) has called for further detail on the workings of ad system Phorm. BT, Virgin and Talk Talk have signed up to trial the system, which intercepts users' web surfing to analyse habits. More than 2,500 people have signed a Downing Street petition expressing concern about privacy implications. "Until we know exactly how Phorm works, and across whose networks our data will flow, speculation about the privacy implications will continue", said ORG.

2008-03-12 - Boing Boing - Open Rights Group to Downing Street: find out how Phorm works!

Summary: Over the last few weeks, the story that BT, Virgin and TalkTalk are signed up to trial a new technology called Phorm, which tracks users' online surfing habits in order to target ads at them, has caused a storm all over the internet. The Open Rights Group (ORG) has called for further detail on the workings of ad system Phorm. More than 2,500 people have signed a Downing Street petition expressing concern about privacy implications. 'Until we know exactly how Phorm works, and across whose networks our data will flow, speculation about the privacy implications will continue', said ORG.

[edit] February

2008-02-24 - The Observer - MPs must thwart the dark plans of the state

Author: Henry Porter

Summary: Parliament has never been less vigilant about the many measures to increase Home Office power. In the name of the great democrats of the past, act now. ... If you want to know how Britain will be in 20 years' time, the best place to look is the legislation affecting children. An excellent report produced by, among others, Action on Rights for Children, Liberty, the Open Rights Group and No2ID, paints a horrific picture of the intensive surveillance of our children who are being conditioned to tolerate the collection of biometric data (fingerprints for library use) and the endless attention of these faceless monitors.

2008-02-15 - The Times - New lease of life for ageing rock stars

Author: Dan Sabbagh

Summary: Now the European Commission has struck a chord with the rock dinosaurs and their music companies by proposing that the rights for recorded music be extended from 50 to 95 years. ... Critics said that extending copyright would benefit only a few artists. Becky Hogge, from the campaign group Open Rights Forum, said: "A handful of artists will get most of the rewards, and it is not clear this will benefit the economy."

2008-02-14 - Intellectual Property Watch - European Commission Seeks Copyright Extension, New Levy Debate

Author: William New

Summary: In a flurry of intellectual property-related activity Thursday, the European Commission proposed extending copyright protection for performers from 50 to 95 years, resurrected debate on the contentious issue of copyright levies on blank media, and ranked member states on their innovativeness. ... McCreevy's move was welcomed by the International Federation for Phonographic Industry, which has been pushing for a longer term of protection for performers. The UK-based Open Rights Group, however, said McCreevy is ignoring evidence in favour of "emotive arguments." The case against copyright term extension was clearly made in the UK and in a study commissioned by the Internal Market Directorate-General, said the group’s executive director, Becky Hogge. Longer copyright terms risk "consigning vast swathes of cultural heritage to a commercial vacuum in favour of the very small percentage of tracks still making their creators money 5 years after they were laid down," she said.

2008-02-07 - BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours

Summary: Discussion about how consumer demand for new ways of distributing content online can lead (slowly) to changes in intellectual property and licensing practices. The debate was sparked by a new "online PVR" service, TVcatchup.com, which launched at the end of last year. Becky from the Open Rights Group explains some of the issues.

2008-02-06 - BBC - Rights attack on smart card plan

Summary: Civil liberties groups say Welsh A Assembly Government proposals for a "smart card" are a way of introducing identity cards "through the back door". ... However, Suw Charman, founder of the Open Rights group, which campaigns on digital rights, described the scheme as "pointless". She told the BBC Wales programme CF99 on S4C: "I haven't seen an argument about what's wrong with the existing cards." "Why do we need to put all this information on one smart card that's going to keep a log on what people do and where they go? It's treating people like criminals."

[edit] January

2008-01-23 - Computer Active - ID cards to arrive in 2012

Author: Andrea-Marie Vassou

Summary: UK citizens will receive their compulsory national ID card two years after the proposed date, according to documents leaked to the Conservative party. ... Security expert Richard Clayton agreed, attributing the delay to the Government's recent "incompetent handling of private data". Becky Hogge, director at the the Open Rights Group told Computeractive: "It would come as no surprise if the Government was to reconsider its plans for ID cards given its recent record on data protection."

2008-01-09 - OUT-LAW - Commission consultation: the need for pan-European copyright licence

Summary: The European Commission says European media businesses should be able to offer creative content in a single legal environment. It has launched a consultation that calls for multi-territory licences and interoperable digital rights management (DRM) systems. Digital media rights activists, though, have warned that the plan covers much more ground than just copyright, and that consumer rights could be damaged by it. ... the plan could threaten consumer rights in a number of areas, according to digital consumer rights pressure group the Open Rights Group (ORG). "Looking at some of the details of the European Commission consultation document it seems to be that they are proposing a lot more than just a cross Europe licensing scheme," said Becky Hogg, executive director of ORG. "There is stuff here about transparency and interoperability in digital rights management systems, there is stuff about codes of conduct between internet service providers and rights holders to encourage legal access and discourage unauthorised file sharing." "These sorts of proposals have been causing waves in the consumer rights community since the last part of last year when France announced an experimental project where ISPs would monitor and disconnect users suspected of illicit file-sharing online," she said. Hogg said that the consultation was likely to touch on difficult questions that the UK has already answered, such as the proposed extension of the copyright term in sound recordings beyond the current 50 year limit. This was a proposal that was rejected by Andrew Gowers in his 2006 review of intellectual property law, which the Treasury has backed. "Gowers has already rejected this so it will be interesting to see how that goes, but we will be keen to see the evidence that Gowers collected on that being put before the European Commission," said Hogg. Hogg said, though, that ORG had no principled objection to a pan-European copyright licence, and that it could solve a problem that certainly exists. "It is certainly good news that the European Commission is looking it and if there can be a simpler system then both for artists and consumers that is good news," she said. "But what's clear is that this is yet another front for consumer groups to be aware of."

[edit] 2007

[edit] November

2007-11-27 - The Register - 'Use me as a mouthpiece' - Guardian hack pleads

Author: Andrew Orlowski

Summary: Ben Goldacre, The Guardian's Mr "Bad Science" writes witheringly about sloppy science journalists. But last week found Ben in a frantic rush, commissioned to write a feature about biometric technology. So he put in an email request to the Open Rights Group, including this interesting offer: "i am offering ORG the chance to use me as a mouthpiece for your righteous rightness." The material from the ORG presumably arrived on time - Goldacre's piece ran on Saturday. The Register asks if this is how journalism should really work.

2007-11-23 - PC Pro - France moves to cut off file sharers

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: The music industry has roundly welcomed the decision by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to disconnect internet users who share copyright files over P2P networks. The music industry has roundly welcomed the decision by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to disconnect internet users who share copyright files over P2P networks.Becky Hogge, executive director of The Open Rights Group, says there are several potential problems with the French proposals. "I would be interested to see the details of the termination procedures, particularly provisions for customers to appeal against termination if they feel they have been inaccurately identified as illicit file sharers," she says. "Given the likelihood of false positives in technologies designed to filter out infringing content, I would be surprised if this experiment leads to anything but disgruntled customers - for ISPs and for the French recording industry both." French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir was more outspoken, describing the decision as "very harsh, potentially repressive, anti-economic and against the grain of the digital age".

2007-11-19 - The Guardian - Digital democracy

Author: Becky Hogge

Summary: The Open Rights Group is the prototype for a new breed of campaign group that the political and media elite simply cannot ignore. It has run two major campaigns, one to inform the reform of intellectual property law for the digital age, the other to halt the misguided introduction of digital technology to the electoral process. Now in the contacts book of dozens of journalists, its name has been heard in the debating chambers of Westminster, and its members have met with senior ministers and the opposition front bench to air their concerns.

2007-11-19 - Bedford Today - Government claims computer vote count success

Summary: More electoral experiments planned despite the problems encountered in Bedford. A row over Bedford's experiment in high-tech voting has been resurrected, after the Government described the pilot scheme as a success. ... This week a Government report claimed all of the pilots had "supported successful elections". But electronic watchdog the Open Rights Group (ORG) claimed the experiment had been a failure, which threatened to undermine democracy. ... Becky Hodge, executive director of the ORG, said: "Elections are one of the most complicated areas it is possible to conceive of to which to apply digital technology." "Not only must the system be robust and easy to use, it must ensure voters' anonymity and privacy, yet be transparent and auditable, and be completely secure against both external tampering and fraud by employees, consultants and the outsourced workers often used to develop components of the system." "Every voter expects their vote to count, and to count once. Until there is consensus that that expectation can be met, remote electronic voting should be reserved for the purposes for which it is fit - naming cats on Blue Peter and voting on the X Factor."

2007-11-15 - Computerworld UK - Fundamental failings in e-voting, says Open Rights group

Author: Tash Shifrin

Summary: A digital rights campaign group has warned that the government is ignoring fundamental failings in its trials of electronic voting technology. The group, which organised volunteers to monitor e-voting and e-counting pilots in the May elections, hit out at the government’s rejection of the Electoral Commission’s call to halt electronic voting trials. ... the Open Rights Group, which submitted its own highly critical 64-page report to the Electoral Commission in June, said its observers had seen significant problems. ... Becky Hogge, the Open Rights Group's executive director, said: "Every voter expects their vote to count, and to count once. Until there is consensus that that expectation can be met, remote electronic voting should be reserved for the purposes for which it is fit - naming cats on Blue Peter and voting on the X factor."

2007-11-14 - ZDNet - Digital rights group: E-voting fit only for X Factor

Summary: The Open Rights Group has criticised the government for standing by its plans to continue pilots for electronic voting and counting in England and Wales. ... The Open Rights Group (ORG), a digital rights advocacy group, issued a statement on Tuesday stating its "deep concern" at the government's response to an Electoral Commission report on the May 2007 e-voting and e-counting pilots. ORG observers were accredited by the Electoral Commission to monitor the pilots — and observed serious failings in the process.

2007-11-13 - Kable - Digital group declares dismay on e-voting

Summary: The Open Rights Group has criticised the government for standing by its plans to continue pilots for electronic voting and counting in England and Wales. This comes the day after the government rejected the Electoral Commission's recommendation that it should pull back from testing the technology in elections until a full electoral modernisation framework has been developed.

2007-11-13 - PC Pro - Privacy group slams government stance on e-voting

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: The Open Rights Group has condemned the UK government's decision to continue with e-voting, despite calls from the Electoral Commission to abandon the scheme. The commission, which oversees all elections in the UK, called on the government in August to suspend internet voting until the current system had been modernised and made more secure.

[edit] October

2007-10-25 - PC Pro - Government ready to legislate on file-sharing

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: The UK government is prepared to legislate to stop the illegal file sharing of copyrighted content, a minister has told the BBC. Speaking to Radio 4, Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said that the government was not prepared to tolerate "intellectual property theft". ... A spokesman for UK ISPs, however, argues that they cannot be expected to track every file that travels on their networks. A view backed up by Becky Hogge, executive director of The Open Rights Group, who tells PC Pro, that the comments are nothing new, and suggests the minister is overestimating the potential of a technical solution. "Solutions which attempt to detect whether data that moves across a network is in breach of copyright law, either by attempting to identify the content of that data or by attempting to identify the type of traffic, are too subject to error to be realistically and proportionately used for enforcement purposes," she argues. "And this is before you even start considering the potential privacy implications of monitoring internet traffic in this way."

2007-10-18 - The Telegraph - The day the music dies

Author: Shane Richmond

Summary: If you unwittingly downloaded music with inbuilt rights restrictions, you could find it stops working. That's hardly fair, says Shane Richmond. If the manager of your local record shop arrived at your door saying that his store had gone out of business and he needed his records back, you'd think he'd gone mad. You certainly wouldn't give him back the music. Sadly, real world norms don't always apply online, as customers of the Virgin Digital Music Club recently discovered. ... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for consumer rights online, says: "If reputable brands such as Virgin can do this, then the lesson is that DRM music is not a safe purchase unless the provider allows you to rip it to a DRM-free format such as a CD. It also shows that the law is lacking and the public needs protection against this kind of abusive misuse of DRM."

Note: Full text of the interview here. Interview: Becky Hogge, Open Rights Group

2007-10-05 - Computer Weekly - Tories slam ‘gimmicky’ web voting and call for urgent action on e-crime

Author: Rebecca Thomson

Summary: IT skills, electronic elections and online security were the main IT issues discussed at the Conservative Party conference last week. ... Elsewhere at the conference, e-elections were branded "gimmicky" by an Open Rights Group fringe meeting. Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon, said, "The key to healthy democracy does not lie in gimmicky use of text and internet votes. Simply computerising the system will not increase turn-out." Group member Jason Kitkat, who had seen several trials of e-counting, said observers could not express confidence in computer-counted results. "There were serious technical problems with the process - serious enough to threaten its integrity," he said. Kitkat added that very slight changes in ballot papers, imperceptible to the human eye, could change the way computers read the vote. "E-voting may be possible one day, but within the next 10 to 15 years, and within the current technological limits, it will not be," he said.

[edit] September

2007-09-18 - Contractor UK - EU court: Microsoft guilty of abuse

Summary: Microsoft was told three years ago to go away and do its homework after losing a competition ruling, but now the software giant concedes “additional steps” are still needed to comply. Brad Smith, Redmond’s general counsel, made the admission yesterday after the European Court of First Instance rejected Microsoft’s appeal against a fine of €497m (£750m). ... Last night, the Open Rights Group, a lobbyist against digital monopolists, said the court’s rejection of Microsoft’s appeal is “good news for consumers and business alike.”

2007-09-07 - Web User - Govt steps into iPlayer row

Author: Ben Camm-Jones

Summary: The government has responded to a petition signed by 16,000 people, demanding that the BBC make its video-on-demand service available on all platforms. ... The government responded by saying that it was satisfied that the BBC was going to make available on other operating systems, and that the BBC Trust - essentially the broadcaster's board of directors - would ensure that this happened. ... The Open Rights Group (ORG) described the government's response as "lacklustre" and pointed out that by launching on Windows first, the iPlayer afforded Microsoft a "significant competitive advantage". "What the Trust's provisions fail to acknowledge is the significant competitive advantage this lag time gives the purveyors of the only operating system currently supported by the iPlayer - Microsoft," a statement on the ORG blog said. "The Open Rights Group believes that the BBC should release content that has been bankrolled by license-fee payers in standard formats that are accessible to all," it continued.

2007-09-06 - Web User - Facebook privacy concerns aired

Author: Ben Camm-Jones

Summary: Social networking site Facebook is to allow anyone to search through its profiles in a controversial move. ... Becky Hogge of the Open Rights Group said that it was a development that needed to be watched closely, but there were steps anyone concerned about protecting their privacy on Facebook could take. "What needs to be emphasised is that individual users are able to control their profile," she told Web User.

[edit] August

2007-08-10 - Washington Post - UK report questions role of ISPs in online safety

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: A new report on Internet safety has concluded ISPs (Internet service providers) should take more responsibility for online security since end users are often lax. ... The report, however, suggested a tightening of how that defense works in an effort to nip emerging security problems earlier, such as sites containing malicious software. "In particular, once an ISP has detected or been notified that an end-user machine on its network is sending out spam or infected code, we believe that the ISP should be legally liable for any damage to third parties resulting from a failure immediately to isolate the affected machine," the report said. But the Open Rights Group, a nongovernmental group that monitors Internet-related privacy and legal issues, urged caution on issues dealing with ISP liability. "As notice and takedown practices tied to suspected copyright infringement have shown, ISPs are not best placed to police the network, and can be expected to react to this kind of pressure by knocking users off the network without appropriate levels of investigation into those users' actions," the group wrote on its Web site.

2007-08-10 - PC World - Report: ISPs Should Take More Responsibility for Security

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: UK report says ISPs should examine content flowing through their networks and apply filtering to cull malicious activity. ... But the Open Rights Group, a nongovernmental group that monitors Internet-related privacy and legal issues, urged caution on issues dealing with ISP liability. "As notice and takedown practices tied to suspected copyright infringement have shown, ISPs are not best placed to police the network, and can be expected to react to this kind of pressure by knocking users off the network without appropriate levels of investigation into those users' actions," the group wrote on its Web site.

2007-08-07 - BBC - The ghosts in the voting machines

Author: Bill Thompson

Summary: Following concerns about the accuracy of the electronic voting systems used in last year's the California state legislature commissioned computer science and cryptography experts at the University of California to review the main players ... Anyone looking for reassurance will have had their hopes dashed ... The report says that 'the security mechanisms provided for all systems analyzed were inadequate to ensure accuracy and integrity of the election results and of the systems that provide those results', which is about as bad as it gets. ... Here in the UK the Open Rights Group, resolute campaigners for civil liberties in the digital world, sent observers to several of the e-voting pilot projects in the May 2007 English and Scottish elections. They had to fight through a bureaucracy which seemed to see openness as a dangerous aberration, where 'observers were frequently subject to seemingly arbitrary and changeable decisions via unclear lines of authority', but the final report makes chilling reading. It outlines many problems, noting that 'inadequate attention was given to system design, systems access and audit trails. Systems used both inappropriate hardware and software, and were insufficiently secured'. A big problem for ORG is that 'E-voting is a 'black box system', where the mechanisms for recording and tabulating the vote are hidden from the voter. This makes public scrutiny impossible, and leaves statutory elections open to error and fraud'. The Electoral Commission, the body responsible for the administration of elections in the UK, has also been looking at the trials and it recently called for a halt to pilot projects while security and testing procedures are improved, an implicit admission that the ORG analysis of flaws in the May pilots was well-founded. We can only hope that these warnings are heeded, and that the UK politicians ...

2007-08-06 - Computerworld UK - E-voting must stop, warns Electoral Commission

Author: Tash Shifrin

Summary: Security and reliability 'needs to be improved'. The Electoral Commission has called for a halt to electronic voting unless major changes are made to the way the voting systems are implemented and secured. ... A report by independent observers from the Open Rights Group, published in June, painted a grim picture of crashed computers and concerns about the systems' security and reliability. The group’s concerns are echoed in the new reports.

Note: Also reprinted in PCWorld E-voting Must Stop, Warns U.K. Electoral Commission, Computerworld E-voting must stop, warns U.K. Electoral Commission

2007-08-06 - ITPro - E-borders could be used to enforce fines

Author: Nicole Kobie

Summary: The government's e-borders project could be used for more than preventing movement of criminals in and out of the country, a Home Office document has shown. ... However, for the data to be used in these ways, new secondary legislation must be introduced, the document said, a move that was criticised by digital rights campaigners. "What I think this... demonstrates is that advances in data collection, storage and mining have the power to fundamentally alter the relationship between citizen and state," said Becky Hogge, of campaigning organisation The Open Rights Group. "Rather than introducing these sorts of powers via secondary legislation, there needs to be a full public debate about data sharing in this country."

2007-08-06 - PC Pro - Anti-DRM campaigners plan BBC protests

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: Anti-DRM campaigners are to hold demonstrations outside the BBC buildings in London and Manchester to protest about the usage restrictions embedded in the corporation's new iPlayer software. ... Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, notes. "What's really bizarre about the BBC's employment of DRM for the iPlayer is that their programmes can already be downloaded using PVRs that receive free-to-air digital transmissions," she says. "Media convergence means there is no practical difference between unencrypted satellite, free-to-air, DAB or the internet in terms of control of content."

2007-08-02 - ZDNet - Halt e-voting, says Electoral Commission

Author: David Meyer

Summary: Trials of electronic voting and vote-counting should be halted until the government can come up with a good reason for using the technology, the Electoral Commission has said ... A spokesperson for the Commission told ZDNet.co.uk on Thursday that a "robust electoral modernisation strategy" was needed to justify any further exploration of e-voting. "There is not a clear direction and a clear reason [for e-voting and e-counting]," the spokesperson said. This stance was echoed by Jason Kitcat of the Open Rights Group, an organisation that monitored the latest round of e-voting trials. "[The report] shows a complete lack of strategy as to why we're doing this," he told ZDNet.co.uk. "No strategic plan has been published or consulted on, and there has been no consultation to parties or candidates or the general public. There is no clarity on what [the government] want."

2007-08-02 - PC PRO - Government urged to halt internet voting trials

Summary: The Electoral Commission has urged the UK Government to halt trials of telephone and internet voting. The organisation responsible for monitoring elections across the country believes that recent pilot tests in local elections have shown that the electoral system needs to be modernised and made more secure before e-voting is re-introduced. ... The Commission's findings were welcomed by the Open Rights Group (ORG), which opposed the recent e-voting trials. Executive director Becky Hogge claims that the Commission's report echoes the conclusions of ORG's own monitoring teams. "We're pleased that the Commission has recognised the desperate need for public debate about the role technology might play in our electoral system," she says. However she is concerned that the report does not address "fundamental" issues highlighted in ORG's e-voting briefing pack, namely that e-voting "is an incredibly complex and very expensive technology that introduces new risks, doubts, and opportunities for fraud and failure".

2007-08-02 - Web User - Online voting gets thumbs-down

Author: Ben Camm-Jones

Summary: A report from the Electoral Commission has criticised trials of online voting that took place in May's local elections. According to the Commission the pilot schemes were flawed, especially when it came to the counting of votes. ... The Open Rights Group welcomed the Electoral Commission's verdict but expressed concerns about shortcomings in the report. "We're pleased that the Commission has recognised the desperate need for public debate about the role technology might play in our electoral system. But we're disappointed that the fundamental challenges in using computers for elections have not been fully recognised by the report," the Open Rights Group said in a statement on its website.

2007-08-02 - BBC News - Halt e-voting, says election body

Summary: Web and phone voting pilots should be stopped until security and testing have been improved, the Electoral Commission has said. It said much has been learnt from recent pilots, but added that "there is little merit" in holding more. ... Concerns were raised about low public confidence in the security of internet and phone voting, accessibility, and technical difficulties. The commission called on the government to publish a strategy for modernising the electoral process - including changes to improve security. ... The Open Rights Group (ORG) said: "The government does not seem to be learning the lessons of previous pilots." "We believe this technology is not appropriate for public elections, and now is the time for a public debate."

[edit] July

2007-07-17 - Computer World - Opposition MPs warn on 'piecemeal' data protection changes

Author: Tash Shifrin

Summary: Opposition MPs and campaigners have warned that changes to data protection rights are being made without proper scrutiny after prime minister Gordon Brown slipped a raft of new data sharing powers into his proposed programme of legislation. ... Becky Hogge, executive director of data privacy campaign the Open Rights Group, said: "This is a worrying trend. The debate doesn’t seem to be one we’re having out in the open. Lots of this is tacked on to bills that are not ostensibly about data sharing." "This level of data sharing does have the power to alter the relation between citizen and state." Any relaxation of data protection laws should be "closely scrutinised and evaluated", she warned.

2007-07-17 - ZDNet - BBC iPlayer launch on, despite crack

Author: David Meyer

Summary: The launch of the BBC's new media player will not be delayed by a new crack for the digital rights management features of Windows Media Player, the corporation said on Tuesday. ... But some continue to argue against any inclusion of DRM in the iPlayer. Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said on Monday that, although the BBC was including DRM at the wishes of rights holders, it was questionable as to whether DRM was suitable for its audience. "Most people in the technical community understand the cat and mouse game," she told ZDNet.co.uk, adding that it was "unfortunate" that the BBC was launching the iPlayer with DRM just as those in the recording industry — a reference to EMI and Apple's recent decision to move away from copy-protected music tracks — were realising it was a "flawed methodology".

2007-07-07 - BBC Black Country - Talking about a revolution

Summary: Hundreds of Linux users from across the world met in Wolverhampton on the 7th and 8th July 2007. They got together to talk about software, digital rights and freedoms. They had some fun, too. ... The event continued on the Sunday with a full programme including a lively discussion on digital rights, freedoms and the implications of electronic voting lead by Becky Hogge of the Open Rights Group. The discussion included a question and answer session with the developer of the BBC iPlayer where the Linux and open source community's concerns over being locked out from the service were expressed.

2007-07-06 - Bedford Today - Watchdog lays into election experiment

Author: Ben Raza

Summary: Government's e-counting pilot threatened to undermine faith in democracy, says report. ... A new report by electronic watchdog the Open Rights Group (ORG) has revealed a long list of further concerns. ... Concerns on the night were so serious that at 10pm representatives from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups collectively called for a manual recount of the votes, only to be turned down by returning officer Shaun Field.

2007-07-05 - BBC News - E-voters 'not boosting turnout'

Summary: Internet and phone voting does not seem to boost turnout at local elections in England, according to BBC analysis. Analysis of pilot projects since 2002 suggests that those people who voted online would have voted anyway. BBC political research editor David Cowling said postal voting was the only option which seemed to boost turnout. ... In June the Open Rights Group warned e-voting could undermine British democracy and called for it to be abandoned until it was to be proved reliable. The group said e-voting did not allow people to see how their votes were recorded or counted, making oversight of elections "impossible" and open to fraud.

2007-07-03 - ZDNet - UK Archives, Microsoft tackle format obsolescence

Summary: Archives chief Natalie Ceeney said society faced the possibility of “losing years of critical knowledge” because modern PCs could not always open old file formats. Thus the Archives welcomed a Microsoft initiative to allow PCs to read old documents in their native formats. ... While Frazer ballyhooed Microsoft’s Open XML as proof of this new commitment, advocates of the truly standards-based Open Document Format questioned Microsoft’s motives in creating its own standards-based format and then offering a translation tool. Ben Laurie, director of the Open Rights Group, said: "This is a well-known, standard Microsoft move. Microsoft likes lock-ins. Typically what happens is that you end up with two or three standards."

2007-07-03 - BBC News - Warning of data ticking time bomb

Summary: The growing problem of accessing old digital file formats is a "ticking time bomb", the chief executive of the UK National Archives has warned. ... She was speaking at the launch of a partnership with Microsoft to ensure the Archives could read old formats. ... But some critics question Microsoft's approach and ask why the firm has created its own new standard, rather than adopting a rival system, called the Open Document Format. Instead, Microsoft has released a tool which can translate between the two formats. Ben Laurie, director of the Open Rights Group, said: "This is a well-known, standard Microsoft move." "Microsoft likes lock-ins. Typically what happens is that you end up with two or three standards."

[edit] June

2007-06-30 - New Scientist - Electronic polling gets vote of no confidence

Summary: Trials of e-voting machines and optical scanners used to count paper ballots were held during local elections last month in England and Scotland. In a report into the trials released last week, the London-based Open Rights Group says it cannot express confidence in the results of ballots which use such systems. Observers spotted a host of problems with e-voting machines, including insecure software, error messages and poorly designed encoded receipts. Malfunctions and software errors delayed counts using optical scanners and, in some cases, electronic counts differed widely from manual ones. From issue 2610 of New Scientist magazine, page 25

2007-06-25 - silicon.com - Call for e-voting to be scrapped amid security fears

Author: Andy McCue

Summary: Official observers express "deep concerns" after May election trials. Privacy campaigners have called for any further e-voting trials to be scrapped after uncovering evidence of poor security, inadequate audit trails, equipment failures and an over-dependence on technology suppliers during the May local elections. The Open Rights Group (ORG) had a team of 25 officially accredited election observers at the e-voting and e-counting pilots and has expressed "deep concern" about the use of the technology in a report of its findings.

2007-06-22 - BBC News - E-vote 'threat' to UK democracy

Summary: British democracy could be undermined by moves to use electronic voting in elections, warns a report. The risks involved in swapping paper ballots for touch screens far outweigh any benefits they may have, says the Open Rights Group report. It based its conclusions on reports from observers who watched e-voting trials in May's local elections.

2007-06-22 - newswireless.net - net.wars: Many hidden returns

Author: Wendy M Grossman

Summary: This week, the Open Rights Group released its report on the May 7 electronic voting pilots, conducted during by-elections in various locations in England and across all of Scotland. ORG observed these as closely as it could through the eyes of 25 volunteers. Much of the report should be familiar to anyone who's read about similar trials and pilot projects in the US and elsewhere (especially the UK's own 2003 trials). There were technical problems when equipment failed or had to be rebooted. There were people problems, when both voters and officials were uncertain how to make machines work. There were security issues, as when ORG observers found PCs and switches with open ports and no one watching them. And there were design problems, when ballot layouts confused voters into spoiling ballots. Sound familiar?

2007-06-22 - Guardian - Schools warn of abuse risk from IT database

Author: James Meikle

Summary: Misuse of an electronic database holding sensitive information on 11 million children in England could lead to millions of breaches of security each year, it is claimed today. Privacy campaigners and independent schools have warned of the "enormous" potential for abuse of the huge IT system to be launched next year. ... But today's letter, signed by representatives of the Independent Schools Council, Action on Rights for Children, the Foundation for Information Policy Research, the Open Rights Group and Privacy International, says that the problems of "a potentially leaky and inadequate system" must be solved before the plan goes further. It claims that evidence from Leeds NHS trust last year suggested that in one month staff logged 70,000 incidents of inappropriate access. "On the basis of these figures, misuse of the ContactPoint system could run to 1,650,000 incidents a month."

2007-06-21 - Slashdot - E-Voting Report Finds Problems with Modern Elections

Summary: The Open Rights Group has released a report on challenges faced by voting technology. Using the May 2007 Scottish/English elections as a testbed, researchers have collated hundreds of observations into a verdict on voting in the digital age. 'The report provides a comprehensive look at elections that used e-counting or e-voting technologies. As a result of the report's findings ORG cannot express confidence in the results for the areas we observed. This is not a declaration we take lightly but, despite having had accredited observers on location, having interviewed local authorities and having filed Freedom of Information requests, ORG is still not able to verify if votes were counted accurately and as voters intended.' The report is available online in pdf format for download."

2007-06-21 - Kable - Report gives thumbs down to e-voting

Summary: The Open Rights Group (ORG) has given a vote of no confidence to the recent round of e-voting pilots. It published a report on 20 June 2007 that includes scathing criticisms of the way e-voting and e-counting proceeded at a number of sites during the local government elections last month. ORG said it cannot express confidence in the results declared in the areas observed, and remains opposed to the introduction of e-voting and e-counting in the UK. The group – a non-governmental organisation that deals with information management and privacy issues – was given accredited observer status at the elections by the Electoral Commission. It placed observers at sites in England and Scotland to record how the pilots performed. The report says there is an underlying problem with e-voting being a "black box system" where the mechanisms for recording and tabulating the vote are hidden from the voter. This makes public scrutiny impossible and leaves statutory elections open to error and fraud.

2007-06-21 - CIO - Report Slams U.K. E-voting Trials

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: The United Kingdom's trial of e-voting and e-counting technologies during last month's local elections resulted in crashed computers and technicians scratching their heads while posing new concerns about the systems' security and reliability, a new report has concluded. In one area of England, a manual recount performed after e-counting equipment was abandoned because of delays turned up a raft of uncounted votes, said Jason Kitcat, e-voting coordinator for the Open Rights Group, which deployed observers to polling sites in England and Scotland.

2007-06-21 - Computer World - Report slams May elections e-voting trials

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: The e-voting and e-counting technologies piloted in last month's local elections crashed computers and raised concerns about the systems' security and reliability, a new report has concluded. ... But observers from the Open Rights Group found that in one area of England, a manual recount – carried out after e-counting equipment was abandoned due to delays – turned up a raft of uncounted votes. The group, which has been critical of e-voting and e-counting, has submitted its 64-page report to the Electoral Commission, which will publish its own report on the pilot e-voting schemes on 3 August.

2007-06-21 - PC Advicer - Election e-voting trials slammed

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: Trials of e-voting and e-counting technologies during last month's local elections resulted in crashed computers and new concerns about the systems' security and reliability, a report has concluded. ... In one area a manual recount performed after e-counting equipment was abandoned because of delays turned up a raft of uncounted votes, said Jason Kitcat, e-voting coordinator for the Open Rights Group, which deployed observers to polling sites in England and Scotland. The Open Rights Group, which has been critical of e-voting and e-counting, has submitted its 64-page report to the UK Electoral Commission, which will publish its own report on the trials on August 3.

2007-06-21 - Sheffield Star - High-tech voting system branded a flop

Author: Lucy Ashton

Summary: Telephone and internet voting in Sheffield's local elections has been branded a flop and criticised for being "open to error and fraud". The Open Rights Group, which aims to protect people's privacy and identity, has released a report which condemns the new voting methods, which have been tried out by a number of councils, including Sheffield.

2007-06-20 - Swindon Advertiser - Borough's elec-chronic voting under scrutiny

Summary: The borough council's election results have been called into question in a damning report. The Open Rights Group queried the results after computer problems plagued Swindon's e-voting trial. But the council has insisted the outcome of the May 3 elections was accurate.

2007-06-20 - The Register - Open Rights Group recounts e-voting horror story

Author: Lucy Sherriff

Summary: The Open Rights Group (ORG) has condemned the May 2007 pilots of e-voting and electronic vote counting in the English and Scottish local elections, saying the technology involved is simply not suitable for use in statutory elections. "We came into this not as a blank sheet," ORG e-voting coordinator Jason Kitcat concedes. "But even so, the scale of the problems was unexpected." He argues that the kinds of mistakes and oversights witnessed by the ORG's observers will lead to a decay in trust in the electoral system.

2007-06-20 - Swindon Advertiser - Town's e-voting "unreliable"

Author: Kevin Burchall

Summary: Computer experts have described laptop computers used in the town's local elections as "unreliable". The Open Rights Group said it could not express confidence in the election results recorded in areas where it observed the counting of votes. ... Alan Winchcombe, the town's deputy returning officer, blamed the problems on a lack of time to implement the computerised voting systems.

2007-06-20 - The Guardian - Counting error almost gave Labour Scottish election victory

Author: David Hencke and Bobbie Johnson

Summary: The misreading of a computer file by exhausted vote counters almost gave Jack McConnell a Labour victory in the Scottish parliamentary elections last month, an official observer's report into the election has revealed. ... The report, put together by digital advocacy organisation the Open Rights Group, claims that there were serious technical problems in electronic votes across the country in the local and regional elections on May 3. ... "I think our findings confirm that e-voting and e-counting are not ready for this," said Jason Kitcat, campaign coordinator with ORG. "There were so many candidates who were concerned that they could not see what going on, and the number of problems show that this technology is not suitable."

2007-06-20 - Norfolk Eastern Daily Press - Scathing report on Brecks election farce

Summary: Electronic voting trials which created farcical scenes in Norfolk and other areas of Britain during last month's local elections are today criticised in a scathing report by computer experts. ... As the Open Rights Group issued its report about "serious concerns" over electronic voting technology, Breckland Council admitted "difficulties would have to be ironed out" before it would use e-counting again. ... It said it could not express confidence in the election results recorded in areas where it watched the counting of votes. The report found the only ward in England where votes were counted both manually and electronically - Dereham Humbletoft ward in Breckland - the number of ballots recorded was 56pc higher when counted by hand rather than by machine.

2007-06-20 - Channel 4 - Thumbs down to e-voting

Summary: Computer experts invited to observe last month's elections raised "serious concerns" over the use of new electronic voting technology in a report. The Open Rights Group (ORG) said it could not express confidence in the election results recorded in areas where it observed the counting of votes.

2007-06-20 - Daily Mail - 'Serious concerns' that e-voting will lead to more spoilt votes

Summary: Computer experts have raised "serious concerns" over the use of electronic voting technology, a report released reveals. The Open Rights Group said it is opposed to the introduction of e-voting and e-counting after it oversaw last month's local elections.

2007-06-20 - Channel 4 News - 'Serious concerns' over e-voting

Summary: Computer experts invited to observe last month's elections have raised "serious concerns" over the use of new electronic voting technology. ... The ORG raised concerns that e-voting elections are "open to error and fraud" because they use "black box systems" where the mechanisms for recording and tabulating the vote are hidden away, making public scrutiny impossible. The lack of reliable "audit trails" allowing counts to be checked meant that there was "no meaningful way to verify that voters' intentions had been accurately counted".

2007-06-20 - The Guardian - Thumbs down to e-voting

Summary: Computer experts invited to observe last month's elections raised "serious concerns" over the use of new electronic voting technology in a report. The Open Rights Group (ORG) said it could not express confidence in the election results recorded in areas where it observed the counting of votes.

2007-06-15 - OUT-LAW.COM - Rock star says piracy battle is lost

Summary: Major record labels are still fighting the piracy battles of 1997 according to a leading rock musician and digital rights activist. Blur drummer Dave Rowntree told OUT-LAW that they should have realised in 1997 that their battle was already lost. ... Rowntree advises digital rights advocacy group the Open Rights Group and has been a vocal opponent of the mainstream record industry's policies of chasing individual file sharers. When told that the last Blur album was leaked on to the internet he reportedly said "I'd rather it gushed".

Note: Reprinted in The Register. Rock star says piracy battle is lost

2007-06-03 - The Independant on Sunday - The great escape: Blur's Alex James on the (quiet sober) afterlife of the drunkest band in pop

Author: Ed Caesar

Summary: Rowntree has fought hard to oppose any ban on file- sharing and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group. Indeed, when asked how he felt about new songs being leaked on the internet before their official release, he said, "I'd rather it gushed."

[edit] May

2007-05-18 - New Statesman - Pity poor Cliff

Author: Sian Berry

Summary: It’s hard to feel sorry for Sirs Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney, and very easy to dismiss the call this week for copyright on music recordings to be extended from 50 years to 95 or even 'life plus 70 years'. The poor things have been at it for so long that their early recordings are starting to fall out of copyright, which means they will soon begin to miss out on some royalties. ... Early Day Motion ... House of Commons Culture Committee ... The Open Rights Group, who are opposed to the abuse of digital rights and campaign for copyright reform and greater access to knowledge, has detailed how most innovation in the UK music scene comes from independent labels that are not dependent on long-ago hits, and that only a tiny minority of artists receive the bulk of royalties. Less than half a percent of artists receive anything that could be called a ‘pension’ and most receive nothing at all beyond their original advance. In reality, it is only the record companies who are making money, as they take their accumulated share of royalty payments from the large catalogues they control.

2007-05-17 - The Guardian, Technology Blog - XTech 2007: Digital rights and democracy

Author: Kevin Anderson

Summary: The UK had local elections on 3 May, and ORG has been campaigning about e-voting. E-voting is a black box system. You can't tell if your vote is being recorded as you wish. There are concerns about preserving anonymity, security and accuracy. Problems with the pen and paper ballot tend to be randomly distributed whereas problems with e-voting tend to be systematic. E-voting doesn't improve voter turnout, and she took issue with a recent YouGov poll which said that more youth would vote if e-voting was an option. ... One candidate said to an observer: "I guess because it is not a manual process, nothing can go wrong."

2007-05-16 - The Register - MPs cosy up with Sir Cliff on copyright term

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: A report released today by the Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee attempts to torpedo the recommendations of last year's wide-ranging intellectual property report for the Treasury by Andrew Gowers, the former editor of the Financial Times. ... Releasing its counter arguments in "New Media and the Creative Industries", the select committee said Gowers had failed to give proper weight to the "moral right" of Sir Cliff to retain ownership of his 1958 performance on Move It. The committee is chaired by Conservative John Whittingdale, who has acted as a spokesman for record industry trade body the BPI in the past on its battle with digital music trends. ... The parliamentary moves to reanimate the debate have drawn consternation from the Open Rights Group, among others. It has a list of the MPs who have signed the motion here.

2007-05-15 - PC Pro - 75 MPs back copyright extension motion

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: Seventy-five MPs have signed a parliamentary motion calling for an extension of the lifetime of copyright on sound recordings. ... An EU report subsequently agreed with Gowers that the 50-year term was sufficient, arguing that any extension would 'strengthen and prolong' the major record companies dominance of the market 'to the detriment of competition'. ... Connarty disagrees, arguing that it is low-earning musicians who lose out. ... The Open Rights Group disagrees, saying that certain politicians 'appear to be neglecting their IP studies'.

2007-05-12 - The Guardian - Google may use games to analyse net users

Author: David Adam and Bobbie Johnson

Summary: Internet giant Google has drawn up plans to compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. ... Sue Charman of online campaign Open Rights Group said: "I can understand why they are interested in this, but I would be deeply disturbed by a company holding a psychological profile. "Whenever you have large amounts of information it becomes attractive to people - we've already seen the American federal government going to court over data from companies including Google."

2007-05-10 - PublicTechnology.net - Open Rights Group reports problems in every election they have monitored

Summary: Open Rights Group observers have reported problems in every election they have monitored. Accredited by the Electoral Commission Open Rights Group observers monitored elections in Bedford, Rushmoor, Sheffield, Shrewsbury & Atcham, Stratford-upon-Avon, Swindon, and South Bucks in England as well as Edinburgh, Glasgow and East Dunbartonshire in Scotland.

2007-05-06 - Swindon Advertiser - Voting shambles blamed on rush

Author: Sarah Hilley

Summary: A lack of time to plan computerised voting has been blamed for problems that Swindon residents faced on polling day. Counting officers had to revert to old-fashioned pen and paper when wireless connections failed at Covingham and Lawn polling stations. E-voting coordinator at Open Rights Group, Jason Kitcat, said: "We were aware of problems with regards to the conduct of the count." "We have been very concerned by the numbers of areas in which problems have been reported."

2007-05-04 - ComputerworldUK - Computer problems delay Scottish election results

Author: Tash Shifrin

Summary: The results of Scotland’s elections have been thrown into chaos and results delayed by technical problems with the newly introduced electronic counting system. The Electoral Commission announced a full independent review as it emerged that counting in elections for the Scottish Parliament and local government had been delayed in many areas of the country. ... Data privacy campaign the Open Rights Group said its independent observers had noted problems both in Scotland and in England, where 12 local authority areas piloted new voting and counting technologies including internet and telephone voting. The group’s e-voting coordinator, Jason Kitcat, said: “Our observers can confirm that they are reporting problems in Scotland and England in areas where there are new technologies.” Observers had seen “a similar type of problem” with electronic counting in England to that in Scotland, “and some problems with internet and phone voting as well”, he said

2007-05-03 - The Guardian - Hacking the online ballot box

Author: Danny Bradbury

Summary: Today, some councils will offer voting via the internet. But exactly how accountable, secure, and desirable are the online polling systems? ... In spite of security evaluations carried out by both the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and the Electoral Commission, the Guardian revealed yesterday that independent experts have identified flaws in at least two of the projects in this year's election pilots, calling them "catastrophically weak" and claiming it would be "trivial" to manipulate votes in some districts testing the software. The Guardian has been shown a number of web pages with example exploits against online voting pages operated by Intelivote Systems, the small Canadian firm which provided the technology for ES&S, a giant election services company managing the project for both Rushmoor and South Bucks. ... Nevertheless, Jason Kitcat, voting campaign coordinator at UK e-democracy organisation the Open Rights Group worries that the lack of a paper trail makes oversight difficult and threatens democracy. "You can't see anything, and because it's digital, copying a million votes is as easy as copying one vote," he argues.

2007-05-01 - The Guardian - Vote early, vote often

Author: David Hencke

Summary: New registration and counting procedures to be used in this week's local elections could be a disaster. ... Similarly, new laws and regulations have allowed independent observers to check out new e-voting and e-counting procedures as a safeguard against fraud and to protect voter security. But again newly accredited observers have found they cannot by right have access to council computers and e-counting centres because officials forgot to give them powers to demand it. So at the moment one group of 30 observers from the Open Rights Group have to beg councils - already fearful they could be criticised if they get things wrong - for access to vital areas. While in Scotland e-counting for the parliamentary elections are being entrusted to an American company without full auditing and trials.

2007-05-01 - The Register - Observers forced to 'negotiate' for evote access

Author: Lucy Sherriff

Summary: Independent observers are being blocked from properly observing the trials of electronic voting at the UK's forthcoming local elections. Jason Kitcat, e-voting coordinator for the Open Rights Group (ORG), says that one of the councils involved in the pilots of electronic and remote voting technologies has refused to allow the ORG's observers access to the servers on which the votes will be stored and counted. He declined to name the council concerned.

[edit] April

2007-04-30 - Times - E-votes put wrong name next to the Labour rose

Author: Sam Coates

Summary: The first signs of problems with this year’s internet voting trials have been discovered, with a candidate’s name matched to the wrong party logo. ... Concerns have emerged about the way the systems have been introduced rapidly and secretly. The Open Rights Group-monitoring organ-isation believes that internet voting systems are vulnerable to attacks on the server where the vote is stored and on the computer used to cast the ballot.

2007-04-30 - The Guardian - Council poll monitors fear e-vote fraud

Author: David Hencke

Summary: Some councils are refusing independent observers full access to e-voting and e-counting centres for Thursday's elections, raising the fear that the experiments will not be monitored for potential fraud and breaches of voter privacy. The Guardian has learned that 30 independent observers accredited by the Electoral Commission are having to negotiate with councils on how much access they will get because ministers forgot to grant them the legal right to demand access to council servers and e-counting centres. ... Jason Kitcat, e-voting coordinator for the Open Rights Group, accredited by the commission, said yesterday: "All of them have agreed in principle that we can come but we are relying on grace and favour agreements on where we can go."

2007-04-23 - PC Advicer - UK group pushes to monitor e-voting

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: A UK group is pressing for access to monitor UK local elections next month, where a range of e-voting and counting technologies will be used. The Open Rights Group, a London-based non-governmental group, expects to hear from local government authorities and vendors in the next few days whether they'll have access to polling and counting areas on election day on 3 May.

2007-04-23 - Computeractive - Local elections get digital observers

Author: Anthony Dhanendran

Summary: Open Rights Group sends monitors to polling stations in England and Wales. Electoral observers in England an Wales will be monitoring May's local elections to make sure trials of electronic voting methods are going as planned. The Open Rights Group, which campaigns for digital rights in the UK, is to send volunteers to monitor proceedings at 30 local authorities.

2007-04-20 - ElectronicNews.net - For the record 20 April

Author: Maxim Kelly

Summary: The Open Rights Group will be sending 30 observers to monitor electronic voting pilot schemes in upcoming UK elections in May. The group said voter privacy, vulnerability to fraud and general electoral transparency of e-voting will be under close scrutiny. Observers will travel to several English electoral pilot schemes, which are deploying internet voting, telephone voting and electronic counting technologies, and will also be monitoring Scottish elections where e-counting is set to be deployed widely for the first time.

2007-04-20 - Computer World UK - Watchdog group presses to monitor e-voting in May elections

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: A group of digital rights and privacy campaigners is pressing for access to monitor next month’s local elections, where a range of e-voting and counting technologies will be used. ... The 3 May elections mark a significant test for e-voting technologies. But new methods of voting and counting introduced since 2000 have raised concerns over privacy, security and the ability to perform recounts - as have e-voting systems deployed elsewhere in the world.

2007-04-20 - The Register - ORG plots e-voting observation

Author: Lucy Sherriff

Summary: The ORG plans to send its observers to Bedford, Rushmoor, Sheffield, Shrewsbury and Atcham, South Bucks, Stratford, and Swindon. It also plans to send people to monitor the Scottish elections where electronic counting will be used for the first time. Jason Kitcat, e-voting coordinator for the Open Rights Group, said: "Our observation mission aims to provide an independent viewpoint on how these new technologies are used in our election systems."

2007-04-20 - InfoWorld/IDG News Service - Group pushes to monitor U.K. e-voting next month

Author: Jeremy Kirk

Summary: The Open Rights Group, a nongovernmental group based in London, expects to hear back in the next few days from local government authorities and vendors whether they'll have access to polling and counting areas on election day on May 3, said Jason Kitcat, e-voting coordinator with the group. The group's volunteers want to monitor how systems protect voter privacy and their vulnerability to fraud, Kitcat said. The group's findings will be submitted to the Electoral Commission, a body set up by Parliament that will provide a report by Aug. 3 on how well the voting pilot programs performed.

2007-04-17 - International Herold Tribune - France to choose president with help of electronic voting

Author: Thomas Crampton

Summary: Election day in France has long had a distinctive Gallic feel, with tricolor flags and voters following a generations-old system of slipping paper ballots into an envelope that, under the scrutiny of three officials, gets pushed into a box that often chimes to acknowledge the vote cast. This month, however, up to 1.5 million of the 43 million eligible French voters will break from the past to use computers at the voting booth to elect their president for the first time. ... "Computers cannot do something both verifiable and anonymous," said Jason Kitkat, the campaign manager against electronic voting for the London-based Open Rights Group, a citizen group dedicated to digital rights. Government officials often fail to appreciate how voting machines can fall victim to human error, Kitkat said. In a May 2003 election in Schaerbeek, Belgium, a human error in data entry caused the voting machines to return more votes to the winner than there were eligible voters in the district. "Governments spend more time regulating health and safety than security issues around voting machines," Kitkat said. "There is little appreciation of the dangers inherent in trusting a machine that can break or be controlled by someone."

2007-04-10 - New Statesman - Righting digital wrongs

Author: Mike Butcher

Summary: The Open Rights Group is up for an award in the Advocacy category. This non-profit organisation was founded in 2005 from a simple Pledgebank.org request put up by technology journalist Danny O'Brien and supported by technology advocate Sue Charman, showing perhaps the early power of grassroots online fundraising. In just over a year it has done quite a lot for such a tiny organisation, raising awareness of privacy in the new age of digital interaction, identity, data protection, access to knowledge and copyright reform. Perhaps its most useful work has been to educate journalists who have to navigate the thorny issues around digital rights abuses.

[edit] March

2007-03-26 - Guardian - Expanding networks

Author: Megan Griffith

Summary: People have always come together through membership of formal organisations and informal groups, whether for mutual support, to provide a service or to campaign for change. ... The rapid growth of the internet and its ability to connect people in new ways is impacting on the relationships that individuals have with each other and with organisations, and on the communities of which they are a part. ... and the emergence of the Open Rights Group, which was quickly established through the financial support of interested people using the site PledgeBank.

2007-03-22 - Guardian - Changing media summit: the wrongs of rights...

Author: Roy Greenslade

Summary: Digital rights management is a controversial topic, but the session entitled "I'll see you in court: the rights and wrongs of DRM" was rather uncontroversial. Though the speakers held broadly different views, their contributions recognised that there is no hard and fast answer. Should copyright holders prevent the unauthorised duplication of their work to ensure continued revenue streams? Or should there by a totally open house? Ian Brown, a board member of the Open Rights group, evidently demolished the case for DRM last year. But he returned today to say once again that DRM technology cannot cope, won't ever cope and should not cope. People must be able to do as they wish with creative content. Indeed, they already are. He said that music executives (unnamed) say that DRM is reducing music sales, and that the artistes who release their work in MP3 formats, to circumvent DRM, are doing better than those who do not. "We should move to an unprotected format", he said.

2007-03-17 - The Register - Dutch FOI disclosures reveal the odd business of evoting

Author: Lucy Sherriff

Summary: Freedom of information disclosures in the Netherlands have revealed details of a bizarre dispute between Dutch electoral authorities and the supplier of the software used to administrate the elections. ... Jason Kitcat of the Open Rights Group says it is "very worrying" that someone so important to democracy in the Netherlands would behave in this way. He says the scrutiny that e-voting is now getting in the region is long past due: "The Dutch have had evoting for years, and it has always had pretty lax monitoring. [After the hacks were broadcast] the government got interested and started asking for checks on the software."

2007-03-16 - BBC - Digital lock's rights and wrongs

Author: Spencer Kelly

Summary: In the 80s, according to record companies, home taping was killing music. Fast forward some 20 years and the devices we use to listen to music may have changed, but the recording industry is still claiming that the illegal copying of their product harms future production. ... "It may have the effect of popularising music and leading to more sales" Becky Hogge, Open Rights Group

Summary: [rtsp://rmgeo.bbc.net.uk/news/media_acl/mps/fix/news/video/83000/bb/83552_16x9_bb.rm?title="BBC"&author="BBC"©right="(C) British Broadcasting Corporation" Extended audio DRM debate with IFPI and ORG] (Real stream) [rtsp://rmgeo.bbc.net.uk/news/media_acl/mps/fix/news/video/83000/bb/83551_16x9_bb.rm?title="BBC"&author="BBC"©right="(C) British Broadcasting Corporation" Extended video DRM interview with LoveFilm CEO]

2007-03-13 - The Register - ORG to enlighten music industry on DRM's limitations

Author: Lucy Sherriff

Summary: The Open Rights Group (ORG) is developing a new paper to inform the music industry about the technical suitability of Digital Rights Management (DRM) as an aid to enforcing copyright. The paper is conceived as a way to inform the current debates about DRM, to break a very technical subject area down into terms that the average music industry executive can understand. It aims to counter the perception of DRM as a magic bullet that will save the record industry from illegal copying.

2007-03-08 - The Register - Volunteers sought to scrutinise UK e-voting trials

Author: John Leyden

Summary: A campaign group is seeking volunteers to scrutinse e-voting trials during May's local elections in the UK. The Open Rights Group (ORG) is looking for people prepared to "devote their day to democracy" and become an Electoral Commission accredited election observer for the e-voting pilots on Thursday 3 May. The ORG will provide full instructions to volunteers on what they'll be expected to do on the day, and tips on what to look out for in the operation of e-voting machines.

2007-03-07 - Boing Boing - Brit e-voting scruitneers needed!

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: E-voting (the "e" stands for "easily corrupted") voting is coming to the UK and the Open Rights Group is seeking volunteers to keep an eye on the infernal machines come the May election.

[edit] February

2007-02-22 - International Herald Tribune - Auto insurance set by when and where you drive

Author: Thomas Crampton

Summary: Jonathan Hick, a 21-year-old student at the University of Nottingham, likes to think of himself as independent-minded. Nonetheless, he recently let his insurance company install a system that uses satellites to track every movement his car makes. ... Nonetheless, customers should be wary of signing up for electronic systems that reveal private information, like their exact whereabouts, said Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a British digital- rights lobbying group. "People should always be wary and aware when information is gathered about their movements," Hogge said. "Just because information is held by a private company does not mean the government cannot request it." For those willing to disclose their whereabouts, location-based insurance is just one many possible uses for such technology in cars, said Robert Gifford, the executive director of Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, an advocacy group.

2007-02-20 - ZDNet - Government rejects calls for DRM ban

Author: Graeme Wearden

Summary: The UK government has rejected a call for digital rights management to be banned in the UK, but has acknowledged that the technology could undermine consumer rights. ... In the UK, the Open Rights Group campaigns against technologies such as DRM, which it believes can undermine the rights of users. Becky Hogge, executive director at the Open Rights Group, believes that public awareness of the issues surrounding DRM is growing. "DRM had been seen in the past as a niche technology issue, but there is now rising consumer awareness about it," she told ZDNet UK. Hogge added that some DRM technologies put restrictions on users that run counter to their rights under copyright law. For example, a blanket ban on copying prevents an individual from taking a sample for review or illustrative purposes, as they are allowed to under the "fair use" provisions within copyright law. "DRM attempts to enforce copyright, but it does it badly," Hogge said.

2007-02-19 - BBC - Net giant supports open ID scheme

Summary: AOL has joined Microsoft in supporting Open ID, giving the free identification scheme 63 million new users. ... Rufus Pollock, director of the Open Knowledge Foundation and board member of the Open Rights Group, said the adoption of Open ID-like systems was a good for consumers. "They're very powerful because ID platforms present plentiful opportunity for lock-in, particularly if they could be a central point of access in the online world," he said. "If one individual firm controlled the system, it could be very anti-competitive," he added. ... Though OpenID does provide some security benefits it is not inherently more secure, said Ben Laurie, also of the Open Rights Group.

2007-02-13 - BBC World Service - Anti E-Voting

Author: Gareth Mitchell

Summary: Electronic voting is getting plenty of attention at the moment - with automated polling machines playing a big part in recent mid term elections in the United States and especially December's presidential election in Venezuela. A growing band of activists say that e-voting doesn't work. A group of them gathered in London at the Open Rights Groups e-voting sessions last week to discuss the issue, so Gareth went to meet them to hear their concerns.

2007-02-12 - Slashdot - IPRED2 - Open Rights Group vs. Their Rights Online

Summary: The British Open Rights Groups yells the alarm bell. Europe again. Ipred v.2, a directive proposal, will pass the Legal Affairs Committee soon. ipred2 would brand 'all intentional intellectual property rights infringements on a commercial scale' a criminal offence, thus the public prosecutor will take action and take over the role of RIAA

2007-02-09 - The Register - E-voting pilots don't make sense

Author: Lucy Sherriff

Summary: Last week, the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) made public the list of local authorities that will be piloting both supervised and remote electronic voting schemes in the May 2007 local elections, despite concerns over unproven technologies and the lack of an audit trail. ... Despite our best efforts, the DCA was not inclined to elaborate on what has changed in the 18 months since the time was declared "not right" for evoting. ... There is also no evidence to support the assertion that voting machines or internet voting will increase voter turnout, something the government keeps wheeling out as its reason for modernising the voting system. If anything, it the trials conducted so far indicate the reverse, according to Jason Kitcat of the Open Rights Group. He says that his investigations have revealed that an apathetic electorate actually stayed home in greater numbers during previous evoting trials.

2007-02-07 - BBC - Will Apple pick music's digital locks?

Author: Jonathan Fildes

Summary: Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple, has set out his stall on the future of the music industry. In an open letter on the Apple website, Mr Jobs argues that the copy protection software used to protect digital music downloads from piracy has not worked. ... many argue that any form of DRM harms consumers. "It locks consumers into specific products. It's anti-competitive and anti-consumer," said Becky Hogge, executive director of the digital advocacy organisation, the Open Rights Group. The European Commission agrees. It says the many different DRM systems should work together. Some member states, such as France, have already approved new laws that could force companies like Apple to share its digital technology with rivals.

[edit] January

2007-01-31 - British Computer Society - E-voting pilot schemes announced

Summary: The government has announced that it is to trial the use of e-voting systems at local government elections in May. ... However, the scheme has been criticised by digital rights organisation the Open Rights Group amid concerns over security. It also said that problems with e-voting in other countries, such as Italy and the Netherlands, should show the government that it is a problematic issue in terms of computer science.

2007-01-31 - ZDNet - Digital rights group slams e-voting

Author: David Meyer

Summary: Digital rights activists have attacked the UK government over its plan to trial e-voting in the upcoming local elections. According to the Open Rights Group (ORG), the technology "threatens the integrity of our elections". In a statement issued on Tuesday, the group claimed that e-voting "does not allow for meaningful vote audits and recounts", suggesting that it would make fraud easier to perpetrate. "E-voting is a black box," ORG's Jason Kitcat told ZDNet UK on Tuesday, explaining that "you can't see what the software [behind it] is doing" and suggesting that this secrecy was deliberate on the part of the companies selling the software to the government.

2007-01-30 - PC Pro - Open Rights Group opposes e-voting plans

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: The Open Rights Group (ORG) has condemned the Government's decision to introduce e-voting in selected areas of the UK for the 2007 elections. The digital rights campaign group said that there are serious questions over the security, accuracy and reliability of the technology that will be used.

2007-01-30 - eGov Monitor - The Open Rights Group opposes e-voting pilots

Summary: Despite serious problems with e-voting in other countries, the UK will hold electronic voting pilots in selected local authorities during the May 2007 elections. e-voting is a technology that threatens the integrity of our elections. The Open Rights Group opposes its introduction into our democratic process.

2007-01-29 - Slashdot - British E-Voting Pilots Announced

Summary: The Department for Constitutional Affairs has announced it is going to trial Electronic voting ... The Open Rights Group (Think British EFF) have responded by saying 'E-voting threatens the integrity of our elections and we oppose its use in our democracy.'

2007-01-29 - Kable - e-Voting returns

Summary: The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has announced electronic voting pilots for the May 2007 local authority elections ... The announcement attracted criticism from the civil liberties organisation Open Rights Group. It described the move as ill conceived and said it would undermine, rather than strengthen, the democratic process. "Such systems open the door to voter coercion and vote buying as well as potential electronic attack from anywhere in the world," it said in a statement. "They rely on commercial confidentiality, rather than explicit and accepted computer protocols, to maintain voter privacy. And they do not allow for meaningful vote audits and recounts."

2007-01-25 - The Register - e-voting to be stripped bare at UCL event

Author: John Oates

Summary: The Open Rights Group (ORG) and the Foundation for Information Policy Research are teaming up for events to raise awareness of electronic voting.

2007-01-024 - Boing Boing - Fighting e-voting in the UK and all of the EU

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: The same rotten, broken electronic voting machines that are breaking the US's electoral process are being imported to Europe. On February 6 and 8, the UK Open Rights Group is holding events on the dangers of electronic voting and ways to fight back

2007-01-17 - Radio 1 Newsbeat - IFPI's stance on DRM

Summary: A report on DRM on downloaded music interviewed Becky Hogge. The IFPI who represents the recording industry worldwide agreed that DRM was getting in the way of fair use.

2007-01-16 - vnunet - Evidence guides Gowers to strike the right balance on copyright

Author: Mark Chillingworth

Summary: "I think generally that the report makes some good recommendations and I am glad to see that making a private copy is now accepted," said Suw Charman of the Open Rights Group copyright campaign. "He doesn’t want to start again; instead, he wants to bring intellectual property into a new policy framework," Brindley said. "But I think the discussions are just beginning."

[edit] 2006

[edit] December

2006-12-15 - The Inquirer - Gates says music DRM is a bit of a mess

Author: Nick Farrell

Summary: The Beeb quoted Suw Charman, of the Open Rights Group, who pointed out it was a "bit rich of Bill Gates to make his comments given how much DRM is stuffed into Windows Vista".

2006-12-15 - BBC - Gates: Digital locks too complex

Summary: Suw Charman, of the Open Rights Group, said it was a "bit rich of Bill Gates to make his comments given how much DRM is stuffed into Windows Vista", the new operating system from Microsoft. "The problem with DRM is that it is very anti-consumer," she said. "It is bully-boy tactics by the media industry," she added. But backers of DRM argue it gives artists an assurance that their work is being protected. Ms Charman called for more information for consumers when they buy digital files and CDs. "Often consumers do not know what restrictions have been imposed on CDs or digital music until after they have bought them," she said. She added: "Apple have been known to change the rules after people have bought tracks."

2006-12-14 - British Computer Society - We have the responsibility to stop e-voting

Author: Jason Kitcat

Summary: At first blush electronic voting sounds like a good idea. To a web-surfer voting online appears no different to shopping on the internet. But in fact the two are poles apart, when people become more aware of the problems with e-voting, they tend to be much more suspicious. ... Jason Kitcat MBCS researches e-government and e-democracy at the University of Sussex. He is the e-voting campaign coordinator at the Open Rights Group (openrightsgroup.org).

2006-12-07 - United Press International - McCartney, U2 support copyright extension

Summary: The public petition for the extension has not gained the support of Britain's Open Rights Group, which has long been a proponent of digital rights. "The big music firms have done a good job of persuading some artists to sign up to this but anyone who reads the Gowers review will see it demolishes the arguments for extension," a spokesman for the group told the BBC. "An awful lot of content creators are not represented by this and recognize an extension will do nothing for creativity and nothing for the public."

Note: Also reprinted in Washington Times, Daily India, Earth Times, uses quotes from BBC

2006-12-07 - The Guardian - Old tunes for all

Summary: The report was given a guarded welcome by the recently formed Open Rights group which campaigned strongly against extending the 50-year limit, but the war is not won yet. The Gowers report is only a staging post, a way of influencing UK government thinking before Whitehall submits its own policy to Brussels where the final decisions will be taken. The real lobbying has only just begun.

2006-12-07 - The Guardian - Citizens' democracy is having an impact

Author: Victor Keegan

Summary: About 15 months ago I went, rather dutifully, to a meeting about digital rights in London's Soho. I was amazed to find quite a big crowd talking animatedly about a subject that was difficult to raise in polite conversation at the time. I was told that this was an inaugural meeting after 1,000 people had pledged £5 a month to get a new pressure group, Open Rights (openrightsgroup.org) established. Its aim was to campaign for people's rights in the digital age when decision-making is dominated by governments and the huge lobbying power of the music and publishing industries. It is clear that it has already become a force to be reckoned with and has had a big influence on making the Gowers review of intellectual property rights, published this week, more consumer-friendly.

2006-12-07 - Computeract!ve - Cracking down on counterfeiters

Author: Dinah Greek

Summary: However, the Open Rights Group which has generally welcomed many of the recommendations has called for caution with the more draconian penalties for counterfeiting. Suw Charman, who is chairman of the ORG, said: "While huge counterfeiting operations are obviously a problem, care needs to be taken not to demonise the petty offenders such as people uploading content on the internet. "Jail is a place for people who are a danger to the public. IP infringements should not be equated with violent crime."

2006-12-07 - The Guardian - Chancellor offers £5m for pursuit of pirates

Author: Owen Gibson

Summary: Dave Rowntree, drummer with Blur and a member of the Open Rights Group, said: "The idea of a private copying exception is long overdue and, together with a proposal for orphaned works and the transformative works and parody exceptions, it will make for a more robust copyright law which encourages creativity rather than stifles it."

2006-12-07 - Intellectual Property Watch - Key Report Urges UK Government To Boost IP Enforcement and Fair Use Rights

Author: William New

Summary: The Open Rights Group, however, praised Gowers for standing up to "music industry hyperbole." National Consumer Council Policy Director Jill Johnstone said, "Evidence shows that music companies generally make returns on material in a matter of years - not decades." She added, "Current terms of protection for copyrights already over-protect right holders - and consumers are paying the price."

2006-12-07 - CBC British Columbia, Canada - British musicians fight for copyright extension

Summary: The Open Rights Group, which included Matt Black, a DJ from Coldcut, supported Gowers's recommendation. "The only people to benefit from term extension would be the giant traditional media groups," Black said. "Here we can recognize that music is a key part of our culture, [and, indeed, a key export], that recycling is a natural part of musical creativity," he added.

2006-12-07 - BBC - Musicians sign copyright advert

Summary: A spokesman for the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for greater digital rights, said: "The big music firms have done a good job of persuading some artists to sign up to this but anyone who reads the Gowers review will see it demolishes the arguments for extension." "An awful lot of content creators are not represented by this and recognise an extension will do nothing for creativity and nothing for the public."

Note: Very mangled quote not from an Open Rights Group spokesman. Quote only added some time after story was published.

2006-12-06 - Web User - Hefty jail terms for pirates

Author: Ben Camm-Jones

Summary: The long-awaited Gowers report was finally made public today, containing proposals for far heavier sentences for infringements of copyright laws. ... The Open Rights Group (ORG) expressed concern that a distinction must be made between people who flout the law for their own financial gain and those who are guilty of minor infringements of copyright regulations. "We are concerned, however, that the report is recommending stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights without distinguishing between large-scale commercial and small-scale non-commercial infringement," said Suw Charman, executive director of the ORG.

[edit] November

2006-11-29 - Intellectual Property Watch - Mixed Reactions To Leaked Section Of Key UK IP Report

Author: Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen

Summary: Those supporting the transition of content to the public domain applauded the news on copyright extension. The Open Rights Group, a UK-based organisation working to preserve digital rights and freedoms by serving as a hub for other cyber-rights groups, hailed the news that the report might recommend maintaining existing copyright terms. "If this is true, we are encouraged and delighted by the news," the group said. "As we have argued - alongside the British Library, the [think-tank] Institute for Public Policy Research, and prominent musicians such as Dave Rowntree from Blur - it is essential for the vitality of the music industry that they honour the copyright bargain they have struck so that both old and new music can flourish," the Open Rights Group said.

2006-11-27 - The Guardian - Music business fights the 50-year rule

Author: Owen Gibson

Summary: The British music industry today launched a last-ditch appeal to head off the findings of an upcoming review expected to reject their pleas to extend the copyright period on sound recordings. ... The Open Rights Group, which has argued alongside the British Library and artists such as Blur's Dave Rowntree that the current status quo provides the best balance between compensation and freedom of expression, said it was "encouraged and delighted by the news".

2006-11-27 - Yahoo! - Copyright extension a no-go: BPI reacts

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: Nacsent UK digital rights organisation the Open Rights Group campaigned against extension, asserting it would mostly benefit the four major labels. Influential liberal-leaning thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research said in its recent report on copyright: "We have not seen any evidence to suggest that current protections provided in law are insufficient. We feel that to extend terms any further than their current length is economically illogical and anti-competitive."

2006-11-27 - The Register - Copyright extension a no-go: report

Author: Chris Williams

Summary: The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property will recommend the current 50 year copyright term on sound recordings is not extended, according to reports. ... UK digital rights organisation the Open Rights Group campaigned against extension, asserting it would mostly benefit the four major labels.

2006-11-27 - Computer act!ve - Tenant threatened with eviction for 'anti-social' website

Author: Anthony Dhanendran

Summary: A Glaswegian man is being threatened with eviction from his home because he ran a web site criticising his landlords. ... That came as a surprise to Quinn, his lawyers and to the Open Rights Group (Org), which campaigns on privacy issues in the UK. Wendy Grossman of Org told Computeractive: "It seems bizarre that any landlord should have the right to evict a tenant on the basis of a web site." She added that although this is the first case where eviction has been threatened, it's not the first time a person's web site has got them into trouble. "You do see stories of kids being suspended from school because they criticised a teacher on the internet, or of people being fired for putting up sites criticising their employers," she said. "There's a chilling effect of self-censorship, where the more people believe there will be bad consequences of what they write online, the more they hesitate before saying anything."

2006-11-27 - CRN

Summary: Quote from Richard Clayton - identified as an ORG member - in "soundbytes" section (p41) expressing concern about 'any item' in the Computer Misuse Act.

2006-11-26 - BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour - Report on E Voting

Summary: The problems with e-voting. Jason Kitcat of the Open Rights Group highlights the increased risk of electoral fraud. Bridget Prentice the Minister responsible for the e-voting pilots was also interviewed.

2006-11-26 - Red Orbit - Millions Get (Legally) Wired for Sound

Author: Peta Firth

Summary: But Sir Cliff has a fight on his hands. Equally vociferous groups such as Release The Music and its sister organisation, the Open Rights Group, believe iconic hits are as much part of our cultural heritage as Shakespeare and should be shared.

2006-11-23 - The Guardian - Let's dance to a new tune

Author: Victor Keegan

Summary: Copyright rules for music should be rewritten in favour of consumers rather than record companies. ... The Open Rights Group has the best approach when it says that the burden of proof should be on those that are advocating change. But even that would only seal the status quo in aspic.

2006-11-23 - The Guardian - Let's dance to a new tune

Author: Victor Keegan

Summary: What should be done? The Open Rights Group has the best approach when it says that the burden of proof should be on those that are advocating change. But even that would only seal the status quo in aspic.

2006-11-22 - The Register - Computer Misuse Act could ban security tools

Summary: Publishing software flaws now an offence? The new Police and Justice Act, published today, could criminalise legitimate IT security activity. There are fears among security experts that changes it makes to the Computer Misuse Act will make it illegal to distribute some vital tools. ... "This applies particularly to dual use tools like nmap, which security professionals use to check if a network is insecure or not and which the bad guys use to scan for insecurities to then attack it," said Richard Clayton, a member of digital rights group the Open Rights Group and a security researcher at Cambridge University. "Distributors of this have to decide if the people getting it from them are the good guys or the bad guys."

Note: Also published in Out-law.com Computer Misuse Act could ban security tools

2006-11-20 - Virus Bulletin - UK toughens law against DoS, tools

Summary: The UK 'Police and Justice Bill 2006', introduced into UK law this month, has drawn some approval for its efforts to refine the definitions of computer abuse to ensure Denial of Service attacks are covered, and for upping the potential penalty for hacking attacks from five to ten years. However, law watchers have warned that other clauses in the law could impinge on the development and use of tools useful to security testers and researchers as well as hackers. ... A summary and some analysis can be seen at the Open Rights Group wiki.

2006-11-16 - P2PNET.net - UK online copyright protest

Summary: Britons who own MP3 players which they've filled with copies of legally purchased CDs are breaking the law. That's because "making this copy is itself illegal," says Open Rights Group executive director Suw Charman.

2006-11-13 - WhatPC? - Jack of all trades, master of the ORG

Summary: These issues included concern about legislation such as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the EU directive on data retention. Charman and her co-member of ORG are particularly worried about heavy handed law-making that has too great an impact on online rights. "There is a lot of bad legislation done in the name of protecting us against potential threats," says Charman, who believes the founding of ORG was timely. "The community already existed and the ORG has tapped into it," she comments. "This is about a group of people who are passionate about these issues and we wouldn’t be here now if there hadn’t been such a high level of support from the public."

Note: Also in ITWeek Jack of all trades, master of the ORG and Information World Review Jack of all trades, master of the ORG

2006-11-13 - PCPro - Campaign groups fight music copyright term extension

Author: Alun Williams

Summary: 'Release the Music' is the campaign of the Open Rights Group, seeking to fight attempts to extend the copyright term on sound recordings. And as well as hosting a public debate on the issue tonight - pitting Blur's Dave Rowntree versus the BPI's Director of Public Affairs - it has started an online petition to back its cause.

[edit] October

2006-10-31 - The Register - Recordings copyright set for extension

Author: Andrew Orlowski

Summary: The case against extending copyright terms for sound recordings may have won some heavyweight backing from think tank IPPR this week, but it received a predictable mauling at Britain's biggest music convention, In The City. A panel discussing the issue was loaded with advocates for extending copyright terms, and only one dissenter: lawyer Louise Ferguson of the clumsily-named Open Rights Group.

2006-10-23 - Boing Boing - UK Open Rights Group is hiring!

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: The UK Open Rights Group, a group that campaigns for digital rights, is hiring a new executive director -- this could be the job of a lifetime for the right person!

2006-10-22 - BBC Radio Five Live - E.U.Tube?

Author: Chris Vallance

Summary: On Tuesday we'll be speaking with Kevin Marks of the Open Rights Group advisory panel to talk about proposals being considered for the regulation of video on the net: a Lords Committee has been looking at plans to update the TV Without Frontiers EU directive. It currently covers traditional television, but there are proposals from the EU Commission to extend this to the net.

2006-10-06 - Information World Review - BL demands overhaul of intellectual property law

Author: Mark Chillingworth

Summary: Microsoft and Google have joined forces with the British Library in calling on the government to radically overhaul the intellectual property (IP) law. Meetings at both the Labour and Conservative Party conferences have added momentum to the debate and a manifesto for new legislation has been drafted. The National Consumer Council , British Phonographic Industry and the Open Rights Group are also lobbying both the current government and the resurgent Conservative Party to modernise the law to reflect the digital age.

2006-10-04 - The Register - Broadcast treaty needs sounding out, says WIPO

Summary: Tech companies breathe sigh of relief...for now. A controversial broadcast copyright treaty opposed by podcasters and internet broadcasters has been dealt a blow by the General Assembly of the body behind it. "This is a right just for transmitting something, and it exists on top of the existing copyright [in the broadcast]," Rufus Pollock, a director of the Open Knowledge Foundation and a member of the board of the Open Rights Group, told OUT-LAW in June

2006-10-04 - Out-Law.com - Broadcast treaty needs sounding out, says WIPO

Summary: A controversial broadcast copyright treaty opposed by podcasters and internet broadcasters has been dealt a blow by the General Assembly of the body behind it. ... "This is a right just for transmitting something, and it exists on top of the existing copyright [in the broadcast]," Rufus Pollock, a director of the Open Knowledge Foundation and a member of the board of the Open Rights Group, told OUT-LAW in June.

2006-10-02 - InfoToday.com - The British Library Releases Intellectual Property Manifesto

Author: Robin Peek

Summary: At what was called a "fringe event" of the U.K. Labour Party Conference, The British Library (BL) sponsored “IP Fee or Free? Public Access versus commercial opportunity in the digital age,” an event that was attended by representatives from Microsoft U.K., Google, the Open Rights Group, and other industry heavyweights. Here The British Library released a document called "Intellectual Property: A Balance—The British Library Manifesto."

[edit] September

2006-09-25 - The New York Times - British Library calls for digital copyright action

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: The Open Rights Group, a digital civil-rights organization, said it "whole-heartedly supported" the British Library's call for a clarification of copyright law." "One of the key problems is that the limitations and exceptions to copyright law are being ignored by business, which is imposing restrictive licenses on digital content,"

2006-09-25 - ZDNet - The British Library wants copyright law to be updated to curb DRM excesses

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: The British Library has called for a "serious updating" of current copyright law to "unambiguously" include digital content, and take technological advances into account. Digital civil rights organisation the Open Rights Group said it "whole-heartedly supported" the British Library's call for a clarification of copyright law." "One of the key problems is that the limitations and exceptions to copyright law are being ignored by business, which is imposing restrictive licences on digital content," Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group told ZDNet UK." Charman said DRM restrictions could be particularly damaging for academic research. "If a library carried a printed journal, academics and students could photocopy it. Digital journals have restrictions on access, which is a dangerous road to go down," said Charman. "If we allow companies to create their own licences, we undermine copyright law. If we say contract law is more important than copyright law, it allows publishers to write whatever licence they like, which is what is happening now."

2006-09-13 - Blogger News Network - Podcasters Unite To Resist WIPO

Author: Deek Deekster

Summary: ... UKPA (UK Podcasters Association) has been working for months with the Irish PodRepBod, the German Podcastverband, the Open Rights Group in the UK and the EFF in the US to resist aspects of the Broadcast Treaty, which many podcasters, podcast users and a growing number of politicians feel are inimical to the healthy development of grassroots new media culture. The issues are about copyright, and the ongoing ownership of content. ...

2006-09-01 - ZDNet - Anti-DRM day announced

Author: David Meyer

Summary: Part of the Free Software Foundation has earmarked 3 October for a global protest against digital rights management technology. "Media companies should be embracing the new possibilities that digital technology brings," said Dr Ian Brown, an expert for the Open Rights Group and academic working at UCL and the Cambridge-MIT Institute, on Friday. "Instead, most are trying to lock us all into their 20th century business models, using faulty technology that will stop consumers from making legitimate uses of copyright works," he told ZDNet UK.

Note: Also reprinted in silicon.com Anti-DRM day to début next month and ZDNet Asia Anti-DRM day set for next month.

[edit] August

2006-08-15 - BBC - Police decryption powers 'flawed'

Summary: The government faces criticism over plans to give police powers to make suspects produce readable copies of encrypted computer evidence.

2006-08-07 - PC Pro - Web independence comes under lobby attack

Author: Stewart Mitchell

Summary: 'Consumer rights are significantly affected when lobbyists tip the balance away from the public good,' said Suw Charman of the Open Rights Group. 'For example, laws are being used to protect DRM software by companies such as Apple, which then price discriminate within the supposedly single EU market. The cost of an iTunes Music Store track is higher in the UK than in the rest of the EU.'

2006-08-01 - PC Pro - EC eyes single market for digital content

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: The European Commission has begun a public consultation on ways to stimulate the growth of an EU single market for online digital content including films, music and games. The Commission hopes to encourage the development of new business models and promote the cross-border delivery of online content services. ... The UK's Open Rights Group has opened a wiki page for answers to the consultation's questions.

[edit] July

2006-07-28 - BBC - Group battles for digital rights

Author: Darren Waters

Summary: Article about the Open Rights Group. An organisation committed to fighting for people's digital rights in the UK is celebrating its first birthday. The Open Rights Group (Org) was founded last year on the back of an online pledge from 1,000 people to fund the group with £5 a month each.

2006-07-27 - PC Pro - ORG opens debate on UK privacy rules

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: The Open Rights Group has opened a wiki page for people who wish to contribute to the debate around changes to the UK Data Protection Act (DPA). ... The ORG wiki invites answers and subsequent edits (since it is a wiki) to the five questions posed in the consultation paper. ...

2006-07-21 - M&C Tech - Yahoo! offers DRM free downloads

Quote: Suw Charman, executive director of the digital advocacy body the Open Rights Group, told the BBC: 'It's an important experiment. I hope it's the beginning of a significant movement from them (Yahoo!).' 'It sends a strong message about not having to have DRM on everything.'

2006-07-21 - Financial Mirror - Yahoo offers copy-free music

Summary: Internet company Yahoo has released their first music download from a major record label without copy protection, the BBC reported on its website.

Quote: Suw Charman, executive director of the digital advocacy body the Open Rights Group says the experiment is "clearly a gimmick" but still a significant move. "It's an important experiment," she said. "I hope it's the beginning of a significant movement from them [Yahoo]." "It sends a strong message about not having to have DRM on everything."

2006-07-21 - BBC - US Yahoo offers copy-free music

Summary: Internet company Yahoo has released its first music download from a major record label without copy protection.

Quote: Suw Charman, executive director of the digital advocacy body the Open Rights Group says the experiment is "clearly a gimmick" but still a significant move. "It's an important experiment," she said. "I hope it's the beginning of a significant movement from them (Yahoo)." "It sends a strong message about not having to have DRM on everything."

2006-07-14 - The Guardian - Internet companies reject plans for tariff to offset music piracy

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: Technology companies have reacted angrily to the idea of a new tariff aimed at recouping money lost to illegal downloads. The proposals for a change in copyright law and licensing - put forward this week by independent music labels and artists' organisations - have caused consternation among internet and mobile phone firms. They are unhappy about what they describe as an extra tax on their services.

Quote: "They are looking at booming technology markets, such as the growth in iPod sales, and wondering how they can get themselves a slice of the action," said Suw Charman of the Open Rights Group.

2006-07-13 - Digital-Lifestyles.info - ISPs Give Mixed Response On BPI Attempt to Clamp Down

Author: Scott Russell

Summary: The BPI continued its policy of clamping down on illegal file sharing this week, when it contacted UK ISPs Cable and Wireless and Tiscali with requests to suspend 59 accounts.

Note: Mentions the EEF and ORG. 'The BPI was noticeably absent from the group of industry organizations which gathered in London on the 12th of July to discuss new ways of charging for electronic distribution of copyright material. Their proposal, that "unlicensed intermediaries – rather than consumers" should be "the target of copyright enforcement actions", was described as "ill-conceived and grasping" by Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group.'

2006-07-13 - The Guardian - Internet firms reject 'piracy tariff' plan

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: Technology companies have reacted angrily to the idea of a new tariff aimed at recouping money lost to illegal downloading. The proposals for a change in copyright law and licensing - put forward this week by independent music labels and artists' organisations - have caused consternation among internet and mobile phone companies. They are unhappy about what they say is the threat of an extra tax on their services.

Note: Quote "They are looking at booming technology markets, such as the growth in iPod sales, and wondering how they can get themselves a slice of the action," said Suw Charman of digital lobbyists the Open Rights Group.

2006-07-13 - PC Pro - UK music bodies call for copyright reform

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: A coalition of UK music bodies is calling for a change in copyright law designed to enable musicians and other rights holders to levy ISPs and device manufacturers that 'profit' from file sharing.

Note: Lots of quotes from ORG including 'AIM and their colleagues also seem to be implying that the ECommerce Directive, which protects ISPs' status as "mere conduits" and is crucial to the net's development, should be torn up,' Charman said. 'Messing with that for financial gain would be very foolish. AIM's proposals are like charging the Post Office a fee in case some of the packages it delivers have illegally copied CDs in them, and making them responsible for the contents of every parcel they deliver.'

2006-07-13 - out-law.com - Music industry proposes 'ISP tax'

Summary: A music industry coalition has proposed that ISPs and others should pay a licence fee to compensate rights-holders for unlawful file-sharing by their customers. One critic called the plans, which would change copyright laws, "ill-conceived and grasping."

Note: Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: "This proposal is ill-conceived and grasping. Suggesting that ISPs and telcos should be responsible for the content transferred by their users illustrates how poorly the music industry understand the net, the right to privacy, and the ISPs' duties to their customers under the Data Protection Act."

2006-07-12 - MacUser - Open Rights Group counter-attacks BPI over music downloads

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: UK digital rights campaigners have urged ISPs to resist attempts by the music industry to have them close down the Internet accounts of alleged p2p file sharers. The Open Rights Group said that the BPI's request that Tiscali and Cable & Wireless close 59 accounts 'is a really bad idea, not just for users but for ISPs too', according to executive director Suw Charman.

Note: Custom PC Open Rights Group counter-attacks BPI over music downloads, Computer Shopper Open Rights Group counter-attacks BPI over music downloads

2006-07-12 - PC Pro - Open Rights Group counter-attacks BPI over music downloads

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: UK digital rights campaigners have urged ISPs to resist attempts by the music industry to have them close down the Internet accounts of alleged p2p file sharers. The Open Rights Group said that the BPI's request that Tiscali and Cable & Wireless close 59 accounts 'is a really bad idea, not just for users but for ISPs too', according to executive director Suw Charman. 'It's essential that ISPs resist the BPI's attempt to strong-arm them into becoming the music industry's bully-boys,' Charman said. 'If the BPI has evidence of wrong-doing, then it must go through the proper channels in order to pursue its case. Producing a list of IP addresses and demanding that the customers who used them be disconnected is no more than an attempt at summary justice. If the end-user is mis-identified - perhaps the IP address was shared or mis-communicated by the BPI - then it will be the ISPs and their innocent customers who will suffer the consequences.'

2006-07-10 - eHomeUprade - UK ISPs Urged to Lock Out File-Sharers

Author: Alexander Grundner

Summary: Suw Charman, Executive Director of the UK-based Open Rights Group, comments: "It's essential that ISPs resist the BPI's attempt to strong-arm them into becoming the music industry's bully-boys. If the BPI has evidence of wrong-doing, then it must go through the proper channels in order to pursue its case. Producing a list of IP addresses and demanding that the customers who used them be disconnected is no more than an attempt at summary justice. If the end-user is mis-identified - perhaps the IP address was shared or mis-communicated by the BPI - then it will be the ISPs and their innocent customers who will suffer the consequences."

2006-07-01 - eHomeUprade - Audio Interview: Suw Charman, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group

Author: Alexander Grundner

Summary: An eye-opening discussion with the Executive Director, Suw Charman, who reveals the ugly truth regarding the limited consumer rights and freedoms people have in the UK (let's just say we should count ourselves lucky compared to what's going on over there) and how her organization is taking a stand to help educate the public and influence new legislation.

Note: Contains a 46 Minute MP3

[edit] June

2006-06-26 - New Statesman - Fighting for e-freedom

Author: Becky Hogge

Summary: Digital rights are human rights for the web age. Let's make them sexy. It's farewell to Cory Doctorow .... Doctorow leaves in his wake a newly formed UK Open Rights Group....

2006-06-21 - OUT-LAW.COM - Plans for new broadcasting rights anger podcasters

Summary: The UK is backing a controversial new broadcasting treaty that opponents say gives big media companies new rights over content. The UK joins the US, the BBC, Yahoo! and other nations and firms supporting WIPO's draft Broadcasting Treaty. Intellectual property campaigners and podcasters oppose the new treaty. They claim that it puts more control over content in the hands of big business. "This is a right just for transmitting something, and it exists on top of the existing copyright," said Rufus Pollock, a director of the Open Knowledge Foundation and a member of the board of the Open Rights Group.

2006-06-14 - Financial Times - Crunch time for Apple’s music icon

Author: Tom Braithwaite and Kevin Allison

Summary: Pressure on Apple Computer to open its closed system of the iTunes digital music store and the iPod music player is spreading across Europe. In the UK, the Open Rights Group, has been lobbying MPs to force companies to open up their DRM. "If I buy a car I expect any brand of petrol to work in it. Consumers are starting to see that they can do less with the music they buy," says Suw Charman, executive director of the group.

Note: Also reprinted by MSN Money Crunch time for Apple's music icon

Keywords: DRM

2006-06-06 - DVD Recordable - UK Politicians Want DRM Limitations Made Clearer

Summary: Consumers should be told exactly what they can and cannot do with songs and films they buy online, says an influential group of MPs in the UK. Lots of quotes from Suw. "We think people rightly feel that once they buy something, it stays bought,"

2006-06-06 - ComputerActive - MPs call for clarity over consumer DRM rights

Author: Dinah Greek

Summary: The report has generally been welcomed by consumer organisations. However, the Open Rights Group cautioned that there is still more that could be done. It said APIG had "missed an opportunity to look more closely at interoperability and open standards for digital content and the hardware that content is played on".

Keywords: DRM

2006-06-05 - ZDNet - MPs demand DRM safeguards

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: An independent parliamentary group wants companies to receive legal guidance over the implementation of DRM, after Sony's 'rootkit' debacle last year. "We are particularly heartened to see APIG take note of the Sony BMG MediaMax and XCP debacle, sending a strong message to companies that they risk prosecution if they use virus-like software which damages consumers' computers," said Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group, a digital rights advocacy group.

Keywords: DRM

2006-06-05 - Boing Boing - UK Parliament report damns DRM, calls for reins on crippleware

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: The UK All Party Parliamentary Internet Group has published a paper on DRM today that makes a number of very progressive recommendations on DRM in British law. The APPIG solicited public comments, and the UK Open Rights Group submitted a long, detailed set of recommendations on how to make Britain safe from copy-restriction technology. Many of the best recommendations in the APPIG mirror the ORG proposals, which suggests that Parliament is really listening to tech activists on DRM questions.

Keywords: DRM

2006-06-05 - Groklaw - APIG Releases Their Report on DRM - It Will Surprise You

Author: PJ

Summary: Detailed coverage and list of points made by the APIG group. Quotes Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group.

Keywords: DRM

2006-06-05 - netribution - Government Inquiry into DRM calls for full disclosure

Author: Nicol Wistreich

Summary: BoingBoing blogger, novelist, open media champion and Open Rights Group member Cory Doctorow commented "These reccos certainly could have gone farther, but hoo boy, would you look at that? Talk about a country bent on learning from America's dumb DRM mistakes.' Quotes heavily from ORG and links to the main web site.

2006-06-05 - p2pnet - Consumers and DRM

Summary: Charman said increasingly, consumers were bumping up against DRM technologies as they use digital media such as downloaded songs and that DRM was, "less about protecting copyright and more about creating a system in which people rent rather than own the media they spend money on," says the story, adding, 'We think people rightly feel that once they buy something, it stays bought,' she said."

2006-06-05 - PC Pro - MPs call for better labelling of digital content

Author: Simon Aughton

Summary: APIG has called on the Office of Fair Trading to quickly introduce labelling that explains exactly how digital content can be used and re-used, and the implications for the consumer if they attempt to break copy-protection systems. They have not, however, called for the practice to be made explicitly illegal, as it is in the US. Suw Charman, director of the Open Rights Group which campaigns for consumers' digital rights "We think people rightly feel that once they buy something, it stays bought,"

Keywords: DRM

2006-06-04 - BBC - MPs in digital downloads warning

Summary: Consumers should be told exactly what they can and cannot do with songs and films they buy online, says an influential group of MPs in the UK. APIG report on DRM and lots of quotes from Suw Charman, executive director of the Open Rights Group.

Comments: The bbc report has been pointed to by slashdot so it has got a lot of traffic. U.K. Group Wants DRM'd Media Labelled

Notes: Also covered by DVD-Recordable

Keywords: DRM

[edit] May

2006-05-30 - Toward Freedom - EU Data Retention: Access All Areas

Author: Monica Horten

Summary: This month, a highly controversial European law came into effect that raises concerns about our fundamental right to privacy. Even before the final text was officially published, the directive had been criticised by several of Europe's data protection authorities, with safeguards proposed by a European parliamentary committee ignored as the directive was driven hard through the legislative process.

Keywords: Data Retention

2006-05-18 - Open Democracy - EU data retention: access all areas

Author: Monica Horten

Summary: A directive that challenges our fundamental right to privacy became law in the EU this month. Monica Horten charts its course through Brussels and details the concerns of its many critics.

Keywords: Data Retention

Issue 61 - Linux User & Developer - Whose Net is it, anyway?

Author: Suw Charman

Keywords: Trusted Computing, Data Retention

[edit] April

2006-04-05 - The Guardian - In praise of ... PledgeBank.com

Summary: Talking about PledgeBank.com, and gives the Open Rights Group as an example.

Keywords: PledgeBank

[edit] March

2006-03-20 - Guardian - Media firms open fire on digital pirates

Author: Bobbie Johnson

Summary: For some the issue isn’t DRM itself, it’s the proprietary nature of it. Everyone has an angle, and everyone is trying to lock you in. Others say that every one would be better off with no DRM. Users who accept that rights owners want protection, but don’t want to be treated like criminals or forced to stick with services we don’t like.

Comments: Also available on Bobbie Johnson's blog if you do not want to register with the Guardian web site. Is mentioned on the Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to data about the UK and its citizens.

Keywords: DRM library music media peer-to-peer

2006-03-16 - Boing Boing - War stories needed for UK review of "Intellectual Property" law

Author: Cory Doctorow

Summary: Publicising the Gowers review website from ORG. Call for stories and evidence provide an alternative viewpoint on copyright, patents and other aspects of IP

Comments:

Keywords: copyright IP Gower

2006-03-16 - silicon.com - Open Rights Group wades into DRM debate

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: Suw Charman of ORG supports suggestions from MP Derek Wyatt that the British Library would make "an excellent facilitator" in the DRM debate. Analysis of DRM debate so far

Comments: Also syndicated in BusinessWeek British Group Wades into DRM Debate

Keywords: DRM library music downloads

2006-03-16 - ZDNet UK - Campaigners back call for DRM debate

Author: Tom Espiner

Summary: The Open Rights Group has agreed with MP Derek Wyatt that the British Library should organise the DRM debate, but disagrees with his call for a European Internet governance body

Comments:

Keywords: DRM library music downloads internet

[edit] February

• 2006-02-13 ZDNet UK: Microsoft DRM will boost mobile music (Andrew Donoghue)
• 2006-02-10 ZDNet UK: ID cards campaigners aren't giving up (Graeme Wearden)
• 2006-02-02 The Register: Parliament committee hears DRM rights and wrongs (John Oates)
• 2006-02-02 ZDNet UK: DRM is failing, MPs told (Graeme Wearden)

[edit] January

• 2006-01-27 PC Pro: DRM lobbyists cry foul over BPI p2p win (Simon Aughton)
• 2006-01-24 Wikinews: Interview: Danny O'Brien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• 2006-01-16 Boing Boing: UK Open Rights Group now open for memberships/donations
• 2006-01-13 ZDNet UK: Motorola to make Windows Media phones, keep iTunes (Andrew Donoghue)

[edit] 2005

• 2005-11-29 openDemocracy The online public finds its voice (Becky Hogge)
• 2005-11-29 ZDNet UK: Digital rights group hits support milestone (Karen Gomm)
• 2005-11-29 Contractor UK: Net's data retention plan approved
• 2005-11-29 ZDNet UK: MEP: Media industry must not infiltrate data retention laws (Graeme Wearden and Karen Gomm)
• 2005-11-28 O'REILY NETWORK: UK Digital Rights: Make Your Pledge (Jono Bacon)
• 2005-11-28 PC Pro: EU data retention laws move closer Simon Aughton
• 2005-11-26 Guardian Unlimited: Music industry seeks access to private data to fight piracy (Bobbie Johnson)
• 2005-11-25 BBC: Fight for your right to privacy (Bill Thompson)
• 2005-11-25 The Register: Music biz to 'hijack' Europe's data retention laws (Lucy Sherriff)
• 2005-11-25 silicon.com: Don't restrict data retention powers, says CMBA (Graeme Wearden and Karen Gomm)
• 2005-11-24 Slashdot: Music Industry 'trying to hijack EU data laws' (CowboyNeal)
• 2005-11-24 Digital Lifestyles: Are Media Owners Trying To Hijack Terror Legislation? (Mike Slocombe)
• 2005-11-24 ZDNet UK: Entertainment industry 'trying to hijack data retention directive' (Graeme Wearden and Karen Gomm)
• 2005-11-24 Mac User: BBC backtracks on Beethoven digital downloads (Simon Aughton)
• 2005-11-24 The digital music weblog: Media Companies Ride Coattails of Terrorist Directive (Brad Hill)
• 2005-11-24 Digital-Lifestyles.info: Are Media Owners Trying To Hijack Terror Legislation? (Mike Slocombe)
• 2005-11-01 BBC Radio Five Live: Up All Night Blog (Chris Vallance)
• 2005-09-13 silicon.com: Cyber rights get a new champion (Karen Gomm)
• 2005-09-12 ZDNet UK: Digital rights group to fight data retention (Karen Gomm)
• 2005-09-12 ZDNet UK: Open Rights and digital freedom (Karen Gomm)
• 2005-09-12 ZDNet UK: Open Rights and digital freedom (Karen Gomm)
• 2005-08-09 The Register: Phone cos and rights activists round on Clarke (Lucy Sherriff)
• 2005-08-09 BBCi: UK digital rights group sets up
• 2005-07-28 BBCi: Digital rights group gets going
• 2005-07-28 The Guardian: The right to digital freedom (Danny O'Brien)[[Category:Page >32KB]]