Welsh smartcards and TVcatchup.com: ORG on the record

ORG has made two press appearances so far this week. Yesterday, Suw Charman combined her two loves – the Welsh language and protecting your bits – by speaking to BBC Wales about the civil liberties implications of the proposed Welsh smartcard scheme. We’re really proud of Suw for breaking the language barrier to question the benefits of the proposed scheme, all in perfect Welsh. Unfortunately, we’re unable to link to the TV footage of Suw, but here are two follow-on articles for BBC News Online, one in Welsh and the other in English.

Meanwhile, I appeared on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme today to contribute to a 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. You can listen to the debate for the next seven days, on the BBC’s own catchup service.

The Open Rights Group regularly spends time talking to the media and connecting them with experts or giving them an alternate point of view on current issues. We maintain a complete list (thanks, Glyn!) of all ORG press coverage on the wiki.