Re: [Fsfe-uk] 'creative industries' launch

[Tom Chance]

On Tuesday 20 Jul 2004 22:28, Graham Seaman wrote:
> Anyway, have people seen the  *'Creative Industries' forum the
> government launched today?
>
> It seems to be made up of MPs and employer's organizations, with no-one
> apart from the Consumer's Association to represent the public, and no-one to 
> represent individual 'content' creators at all. But that may be just because
> I'm not familiar with all the associations listed. Am I right? Who would you
> apply pressure to to widen the membership, or is it all too late? 

I'd guess that it's too late. Even if it weren't too late, I'd also say we'd 
need a respected organisation on our side to join, i.e. I doubt they'd take 
in the AFFS ;-) On the other hand, we might find some way into a member 
organisation, The Digital Content Forum: "Full membership of DCF is open to 
trade associations and representative bodies with a vested interest in the 
digital content sector."

That aside, the tone of the press release, along with the organisations 
represented, suggest it will be primarily concerned with protecting the IP 
industry. It specifically mentions "challenges such as file-sharing and 
piracy".

On the other hand, it does give us a list of people to lobby. MPs can be 
pressured to take up their concerns of their constituents; ministers the 
concerns of all of us; and representatives from private organisations can be 
persuaded of our arguments if we find appropriate ways to approach them.

No doubt we will find ourselves wanting to react to decisions and statements 
they make, so a large part of it will be tackling their arguments. We could 
then push a positive agenda of meeting the challenges of the digital 
environment with innovative licensing schemes. In other words, push things 
like Free Software, the BBC's Creative Archive and Creative Commons as 
answers not altogether opposed to, but rather complementing "traditional" 
schemes.

What do people think?

Regards,
Tom