Victor Keegan offered a - somewhat slanted - discussion of the appropriate term of copyright protection in the Guardian yesterday, highlighting the tension between corporate protection of value and wider social creativity sides of the argument. Its a nice read.
Also - loosely - related to copyright (but more particularly related to my new-found ability to embed YouTube clips), is this entertaining video on tampering with digital imagery
Earlier this week, John Battle - Head of Compliance at ITN - spoke at the LSE on the theme of the courts, the media and open justice in 21st Century Britain. He has been vocal on this theme elsewhere in recent months. In an engaging discussion, he highlighted the impact of the 2005 Protocol on publicity and the criminal justice system on the reporting of the courts in England and Wales, and asserted that the change was perhaps the most significant in this area in his lifetime. It is hard to disagree; the Protocol has allowed broadcasters to publish evidence footage, and newspapers to publish stills, that formerly would have been simply unavailable. The upshot is that the general public is more immediately and poignantly informed of the matters presented to the courts.
Examples of the sorts of materials available under the protocol can be seen in the following YouTube videos which aggregate material from the news and current affairs coverage of the Jean Charles de Menezes. Evidently, its a far cry from the old-style journalist-outside-court retelling of legal events, and as a result the news reporting of court proceedings has risen significantly...
The Strasbourg court has delivered two judgments in the last month or so focused on national defamation laws, and in particular on the question as to whether there exists a 'right to reputation' protected under Article 8 ECHR. On both occasions, in Lindon v France and Pfeifer v Austria, the court concluded that reputation is so protected.
For some, this is a welcome conclusion for the rebalancing that it implies must be undertaken as between freedom of expression and reputation in cases such as Reynolds or Jameel. For others, it is based upon a basic misunderstanding of the origins and purpose of Article 8. I'm hoping to speak more to this dichotomy in the next weeks. Meanwhile, Jonathan Coad of Swan Turton has comment pieces on both cases (1,2).
Last Wednesday, Ed Richards of Ofcom spoke at LSE on the above topic - there's useful summary of the discussion and context on Charlie Beckett's blog.
Henry Deedes has a suitably gossipy piece in the Independent today on relations between celebrities / public figures and journalists. Its a suitably tantalising foray over ground covered at greater length (but perhaps not as much depth?) by Jessica Callan in recent times.
Two stories on content rights agreements on the MediaGuardian site today are worthy of juxtaposition.
On one hand, the BBC has reached an agreement with Pact (the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television) regarding the allocation of rights as between the corporation and producers of interactive new media content in future contracts. Under the agreement, producers will retain ownership of their content ideas. There's little detail avialable at present, but according to the Guardian the basic aim is to emphasise and reward creativity. The agreement shifts the sector's business model from old style agency/cost plus to one based on IP generation, and should help generate a real secondary market in interactive content. Pact negotiates terms of trade with all public service broadcasters in the UK. Last June, it entered agreements with the BBC, ITV and C4 on the exploitation of media content across the full range of platforms.
On the other hand, the strike by writers in the US continues although new talks have been mooted for today. The talks will be aimed at reaching an accord on the fair level of payments for the use of writers' work on new media platforms such as the internet and mobile phones, as well as on derivative products such as DVDs. For evidence of actors' dumb (?) solidarity, see these on YouTube. Also, see these for general background on the dispute (1,2,3,4), and this on what it means for us (!).
I learnt first from the Sun (which loves to find stories relating to this show as it allows lurid copy - apparently its a bit steamy...) , and latterly from the Telegraph, Digital Spy, the NME, and the BBC that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are to sue the producers (among others) of the David Duchovny series Californication on account of its apparent 'borrowing' of the title from the band's song / album. The show airs on Channel 5 in the UK.
The band claim that the album was the signature piece of their discography. Good as it was, for me you can't beat Blood Sugar Sex Magik...
