From the Open Rights Group. I reprint the article in full: The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has confirmed that no text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been shared with MPs or the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.1 Parliament has not been involved in the negotiating process either. No democratic institution in the UK has seen the ACTA draft. There has been no democratic scrutiny of the text, Parliament has been shut out of this process. This draft agreement lacks legitimacy before it is even agreed. Despite its name a lot of ACTA deals with copyright enforcement. Despite assurances from...

From the Open Rights Group ORGCon conference: [ORGCon] James Boyle: The Incredible Shrinking Public Domain from Open Rights Group on Vimeo. ...

Here is a precis of the speech by Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group. You can find the full text of the speech here. “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. “European literature may shortly be more widely available in the US than in Europe. This would be ironic, regrettable and damaging to European cultures. It is also unnecessary. “We think we must now accept that...

Remember the good chuckle we all had over those $10 computers that India was to develop? Maybe in time, no? But for now, India has ordered 250,000 OLPC XO machines, with millions more expected. That’s a lot of potential e-book readers---the human kind. Will Western publishers catch on and offer freebies or extra-extra-low-priced editions? (Thanks to Chris Meadows.) Technorati Tags: India,One Laptop per Child...

This is important enough to print in full. I hope our European readers will write and email in protest of this proposed action: Today, organisations representing consumers, citizens and libraries around the world united to condemn copyright term extension in Europe. The joint statement was sent to MEPs who sit on the committees that will decide the flawed Term Extension Directive...