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[John Howkins <john AT johnhowkins.com>]

Title: Re: [Cc-uk] Letter from MP

I agree – ‘agree to commission’ implies it has not yet been commissioned and is in the process of being offered to the department’s list of approved consultants.

Being independent means a company that had worked for both eg EMI and FSF would be OK but a company that had worked only for EMI or FSF would not. Adding EMI, FSF, CC to a proposal would disqualify it.

Can we get hold of the tender document?  Cd you follow up Purnell’s letter?  If not we cd set up a parallel study as you suggest.

John


On 17/7/05 12:15 pm, "David Hirst" <dhirst AT pavilion.co.uk> wrote:

Since it is only "agreement to commission" this suggests they have not yet commissioned it, and the work is open for bidding. They may well not yet have issued any ITT.

They will naturally wish to keep the bid list closed and as small as possible, but this is probably the sort of study that they are obliged to publish in the European Journal, along with the criteria for short listing. The only easy way to escape this is to have the value too small to be useful. This should open opportunities for involvement. We may be too late for the bidding, but we will not be too late to demand contact with those doing the study, and any refusal would invalidate it.

It is possible that a proposal including broad interest groups as parties to the study should strengthen it. Do “academics” count as independent? It may be that the only parties who can approach independence on this are the heavyweight management consultants, but they too have axes to grind. Lawyers with any expertise on the subject cannot really be considered independent. Indeed, it may be that only the truly ignorant can genuinely claim independence. If that is the case, then a consortium of professionals across the “spectrum” might be a good answer.

Being professional in this case means being paid for the work.

It may also be worth approaching the RSA, who are completing their own study, and plan to report later this year. They may be able to act as a kernel for a proposal.

It may also be that the FSF would be able to co-ordinate.

Of course, a very good answer is for the report to be an “Open Source” project, with people working together to produce a version 1.0 for submission to the government. If the project articulates the proposed law (which is essentially code, although not automatically executable), this parallels are clear.

It would seem sensible to have pan-European involvement, and cc might also be a good organisation to co-ordinate this.

 



David Hirst

Mobile +44 7831 405443





-----Original Message-----
From: cc-uk-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cc-uk-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of John Howkins
Sent: 17 July 2005 11:37
To: David M. Berry; cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Cc-uk] Letter from MP



Does anyone know who is doing the study (DCMS officials, patent office or an

outside consultant) and what its remit is?  Presumably, independnent means

outside?  If we know, we can talk to them.

John





On 16/7/05 10:28 am, "David M. Berry" <d.berry AT sussex.ac.uk> wrote:



>

> Hi all,

>

> I received this letter from my MP, David Lepper, this morning, which

> was a forwarded response from the DCMS (Department of Culture Media

> and Sport). I have a sneaking suspicion that EMI are lobbying hard

> and that the Government is somewhat sympathetic to the only remaining

> big record label in the UK when it starts to talk about its money

> running out....

>

> - David

>

>

> ------------

>

>

> David Lepper MP

> House of Commons

> LONDON

> SW1A 0AA

>

> 12 July 2005

>

>

> Dear David,

>

> Thank you for your letter of 30 June to Tessa Jowell enclosing one

> from your constituent, Mr David Berry of xxxxxxx, about the copyright

> term on music.

>

> The music industry is keen to see an extension of the copyright term

> for sound recordings, which is currently set at 50 years. Many UK

> recordings dating from the early 1960s - such as those by The Beatles

> and the Rolling Stones - are still selling well, and companies like

> EMI are concerned about their income streams once these recordings

> start to go out of copyright from 2010.

>

> Despite the report in the press we have not in fact made a decision

> on whether the copyright term on music should be extended. We are,

> however, discussing the issue with other Departments, and have now

> reached agreement to commission an independent study to assess the

> pros and cons of change. Any change in copyright term would be a

> matter for EU law, so all relevant Government interests, as well as

> our EU partners, would need to be convinced that change is justified

> and in the best interests of UK stakeholders generally.

>

> Yours

>

> James Purnell MP

> Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism

>

> DCMS

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> Cc-uk mailing list

> Cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org

> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-uk



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