ORG parliamentary and policy update/2013-w38

This is ORG's Parliamentary Update for the week beginning 16/09/2013

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Consultations and departments

Draft secondary legislation to regulate collecting societies

The Intellectual Property Office has launched a consultation into the legislation behind the regulation of collecting societies. Following the 2011 Hargreaves Review, collecting societies have been self regulated and the goal of this consultation is to remedy gaps in the self regulation. Closes 7 October.

Ofcom publishes consumer guide on internet ‘traffic management’

Following research showing a general lack of awareness of traffic management, with one in 10 internet consumers (11 per cent) familiar with the term and only one per cent claiming to have considered this when choosing their broadband service, Ofcom have released a guide on traffic management.

New Intellectual Property Adviser appointed

The Prime Minister has appointed Mike Weatherley MP, a former record label worker and Vice President of the Motion Picture Licensing Company, as his adviser on intellectual property, with a focus on intellectual property enforcement issues relating to the creative industries.

Committees

BIS Committee report on Open Access published

The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has published its report on Open Access which looks into the Government’s commitment to increasing access to published research findings, and its desire to achieve full open access.

Government Bills

Communications Data Bill, 'snoopers charter' debate revived

The Gloucestershire's Police and Crime Commissioner has written to Theresa May MP on behalf of 21 PCCs declaring their support for the Communications Data Bill. The Bill was previously dropped in May.

Debates and questions

Question on available resources for combatting child abuse online

Helen Goodman MP asked a question about the adequacy of the resources available to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre to combat child abuse online. The response from Damian Green MP included details of staffing increase of over 50% now (133 as of 30 August 2013) than in November 2010 (85).

International Developments

Evaluating Graduated Response

A Monash University (Australia) Faculty of Law research paper was published looking into "graduated responses", requiring ISPs to take a range of measures to police their users' copyright infringements. It reports there is little to no evidence that that graduated responses are either 'successful' or 'effective'.

European Union

Threat to net neutrality in European Commission draft proposal

The European Union has released its draft proposal for a Regulation to complete the European single market for electronic communications. This includes various measures which could affect net neutrality.

ORG Media coverage

See ORG Press Coverage for full details.

ORG contact details

Staff page

• Jim Killock, Executive Director
• Peter Bradwell, Policy
• Javier Ruiz, Campaigns
• Lee Maguire, Tech