Open source, copyright, DRM, software patents, patent trolls, Creative Commons, the seminar on the Gowers Review http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2006/03/14/gowers-review-seminar-notes/ sure hit a lot subjects that the readers of fsf are intrested in.
The Open Rights Group attended the seminar and took detailed notes. If you'd like to take part in the Gowers Review of intellectual property in the UK, then the easiest way to do so is on the new site http://gowers.openrightsgroup.org/ set up by the Open Rights Group (Think eff but in the UK). They have sliced the Call for Evidence into bite-sized chunks, each of which you can comment on.
Or as Cory Doctrow puts it, War stories needed for UK review of "Intellectual Property". The Open Rights Group (ORG) has just launched a website where the public can comment on the Call for Evidence from the Gowers Review, a Treasury-level review of intellectual property in the UK. The Gowers Review deadline is the end of April, and it is an important opportunity to provide an alternative viewpoint on copyright, patents and other aspects of IP. We can be sure that the industries which rely on IP will be lobbying heavily, and it's essential we provide balance in the debate. The ORG is particularly looking for first-hand accounts of using IP in business (regardless of the size of that business) or in your personal life that illustrate the problems with the current regime.
ORG has no restrictions on where in the world you are from, but it would be handy to know if people are not in the UK. The same principles are at work in many countries, and examples from abroad are instructive even when there is no direct parallel to UK law.
"At the Enterprise Conference on 2 December 2005, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that, as part of the Pre-Budget Report 2005 package, he was asking Andrew Gowers to lead an Independent Review to examine the UK's intellectual property framework. Mr. Gowers will be assisted by a small secretariat of civil service officials. The review will report to the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Autumn 2006. The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property launched its consultation phase with a formal call for evidence on 23 February 2006."
"The call for evidence consists of a http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/97F/F4/gowers_callletter_230206.pdf letter from Andrew Gowers, accompanying an http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/978/9B/gowers_callforevidence230206.pdf issues paper, which provides details of the scope of the Review and sets out a number of general and specific issues on which we would particularly like to gather evidence. It also invites respondents to highlight other issues for consideration by the Review."
What is the scope of the review I hear you ask, "The Review will examine all elements of the IP system, to ensure that it delivers incentives while minimising inefficiency."
Hard to complain that not broad enough. :)
Glyn
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