A different debate

On Tuesday, I spoke on behalf of ORG at an event organized by Eric Joyce and Julian Huppert on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary group discussing the Digital Economy Act.

Walking into the room, it felt rather like a replay of the debates we had prior to the Act. Many of the same faces were there, including the ever-present Richard Mollett, speaking on behalf of the BPI, and others including the Federation Against Software Theft and other rights holders. Richard welcomed Org in his customary way, we sat down on oppsite sides of the room, and shortly afterwards the meeting began.

But it didn’t turn out to be a re-run of the same old points. What we heard was a growing range of voices against the Act. This wasn’t just ORG and Consumer Focus making our complaints about people’s rights, data protection, the bodged draft code and the clear breach of human rights that interference with communications presents. This debate included Coadec and Steve Lawson making some impassioned pleas on behalf of digital innovators and independent artists. And to follow them came a large number of citizens who had come to the meeting of their own accord.

You don’t usually get people speaking on their own behalf at these debates, and still less do you get artists. Steve’s points were especially well-made: he outlined how it is now possible for an artists to make an income by keeping their copyright and selling music directly to fans, while also building reputation. He pointed out how badly the old intermediaries have served many artists, and how for him, the new model was much more hopeful and sustainable.

Similarly, Coadec’s Jeff Lynn, representing digital businesses, was able to articulate the problems many of their members suffered by restrictive licensing by the traditional copyright industries. This is a point often raised by ORG, but needs to be echoed by groups like Coadec.

Encouragingly, there were some new faces among the MPs, attending. Kerry McCArthy has blogged about the meeting here. 

We also heard libraries state the difficulties of the model the Act has imposed, alongside people working for digital inclusion, pointing out how much of a nonsense it is to push inclusion alongside potential disconnection measures.

More worryingly, there is an assumption among some that we will move to these punishments. We do not assume that, but it’s up to us all to make sure it doesn’t.

So, let’s welcome the appearance of artists and digital businesses at the centre of this debate. Let’s hope their voices are increasingly listened to, alongside citizen groups like ourselves, Liberty and Consumer Focus.