The Open Rights Group managed to claw another bunch of meeting minutes and attendee’s lists from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); shedding a bit more light on the options being discussed for the next batch of copyright protection measures, along with some pointers as to who’s pushing them.
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What I’m still very worried about...
... is the way these plans are being formulated - in secret, amongst a select group of “industry” representatives. No small business representatives, no consumer voices, no civil society involvement.
I’ve said it many times before. The internet is more than a handful of global tech giants, internet advertisers and ISPs. Legislation drafted this way will inevitably end up favouring today’s incumbents at the expense of innovation and fair market competition tomorrow.
Or end up an unworkable mess.
As far as transparency goes, DCMS has crafted a franky unacceptable fudge.
In order to claim secret meetings of a select few are transparent and include a wide group of stakeholders there will be an infrequent sideshow to give other voices a chance to bemoan what’s continuing to be agreed behind closed doors.
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Personally I think in this case nothing would be better than something; Nothing would deny the Minister an opportunity to make a far-flung claim that this process is transparent; a claim I'd lay money on him making.
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@JamesFirth
