Alverton Penzance Photographic Competition

THE ALVERTON PENZANCE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION
Hi and welcome to our photo competition; here is your chance to have your work displayed in our gallery for thirty days at no cost to you. The current competition runs from 23 November 2016 to 23 January 2017 and the theme is ‘We Love the Coast.’ To enter please send your images as email attachments to penzancesubmissions@gmail.com – please see the rules below for the extra stuff you need to do when submitting. The images must be less than two years old and not have won any other competition prizes if less than two years old. Therefore the images can have been taken at any time after 23 November 2014 so long as they stick to the coastal theme and have not been a winner or runner up in another competition. This is to keep things fresh and whilst it means you don't necessarily have to take photos especially for our contest, it would be great if you did! Try not to go too mad with the Photoshopping and other photo effects, though. The fees are £5 for one entry, £8 for two images and £10 for three. If you are local then the easiest way to make payment is to call in to the gallery in person. Otherwise if you have a PayPal account the easiest methods are either to use this link https://www.paypal.me/AlvertonGallery or to send payment to the email address roger@thealvertongallery.co.uk using this link https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/send-money-online . Alternatively you can use the drop down arrow above (to the right of the words “choose an option”) to select the number of entries you want to submit and once you’ve made your choice hit the “add to basket” button. To enter in multiple batches either keep adding to the basket or use the drop down arrow to the left of the “add to basket” button. Go up to the basket symbol (top right of the page) to use our checkout to pay to our PayPal. No worries here if you don’t have a PayPal account; PayPal also accepts payment by debit or credit card but here you need to select the “Check Out as a Guest” option. Please see below for details of the prizes and the full rules of the competition; apologies for the length of the rules but it's like that with all contests. We look forward to seeing your work in the gallery.

COMPETITION RULES

These are the rules for entering the Alverton Penzance Photographic Competition. The theme of each competition, submission dates and deadlines will be announced on our website www.thealvertongallery.co.uk. If you have any queries regarding these rules please contact us on info@thealvertongallery.co.uk.

ELIGIBILITY

 Entrants must be 18 years of age or older. Owners and employees of The Alverton Gallery, Penzance and their immediate family members, and people living in the households of such owners and employees, are not eligible to enter the competition.

HOW TO ENTER

The contest is restricted to photographs only. The photographs must not have been taken before 23 November 2014. Prior to submission, entrants must not have been paid for any publication of any of their entries or won or been a runner up in any other photographic competition with any of their entries. Therefore you can submit to us any other images of yours falling outside these categories. All photos submitted must be the original work of the entrant who must be the copyright-holder. The entrant is responsible for ensuring that all permissions and releases have been obtained in respect of any image submitted. On this basis the entrant will at all times retain copyright to his/her work. In fairness to all entrants we reserve the right to disregard any entries that do not follow the theme of the contest “We Love the Coast.” Photographs must be submitted to us in digital format only and by way of email attachment. The photograph (s) need not be taken with a digital camera; scans of negatives, transparencies, or photographic prints are acceptable as are photos taken with handheld devices such as iPads and smartphones . Entry photographs can be taken anywhere in the world except where prohibited by the relevant government/authorities. Entries shall be submitted to the competition at a cost of £5 per entry, £8 per two entries and £10 per three entries. Please use the “choose an option” drop-down arrow above to select the number of entries then proceed to make payment using the “add to basket” button. Alternatively, or in the unlikely event that you experience difficulties with our website, you may send the Paypal payment to using this link https://www.paypal.me/AlvertonGallery or via the email address roger@thealvertongallery.co.uk using the “Send” option on this Paypal link https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/send-money-online Although paypal is our method of payment processing, if you wish to pay by credit or debit card then you can still use paypal even without an account. When you click the payment link you’ll be taken to Paypal and it will give you two options: 1) Pay with my Paypal Account and 2) Check Out as a Guest. Select the second option and you can pay without creating an account. The said entry fees are non-refundable and no changes of images can be made after you submit without another entry fee. Initially, upon payment of the said fees, your submissions should be made by way of an image attachment(s) and should be emailed to this address: penzancesubmissions@gmail.com Please note that this is the ONLY submission email; submissions should not be made to our other email addresses. In the body of your email please include YOUR PAYPAL PAYMENT REFERENCE NUMBER together with your name and address, the image title (s) and details of when and where the image (s) was/were taken. Please name each attachment with your name, the title of the photo and the month of submission, using the underscore to separate each word, for example John_Jones_Coastal_Sunrise_Jan_2017.jpeg. Please quote the competition name as the subject line of your submission email, for example “Alverton Penzance Photographic Competition – We Love the Coast.” The said image attachment (s) should depict the artwork at accurately as possible.  For images taken by professional or serious amateur photographers using a DSLR camera, each image should be approximately 1200 x 900 pixels (landscape or portrait) at 72 dpi in JPEG format and no larger than 1 MB in size. However if you are not familiar with this technical language or if  the image was taken with a different type of camera or device (such as a smartphone) then basically we would like the image to be rectangular (pretty much the same shape as an iPad screen, landscape or portrait) and we would ask that you try to avoid sending huge attachments in terms of megabytes when emailing your submission. No title, watermarks or other identification of the entrant shall be visible anywhere on the face of the image. Should an image be selected for our top ten winners, then at that stage we will request a higher resolution image suitable for conversion to a print of dimensions 12 inches x 8 inches (approximately 30cm x 20cm). Proof of email despatch is not proof of receipt by us. We will attempt to acknowledge all entries by email but we accept no responsibility for entries lost in the email system, although here we will consider returning the entry fee depending on the circumstances. Images may be digitally enhanced in minor ways such as cropping, the improvement of brightness/clarity and/or the removal of spots, scratches and distant objects but the essential content and composition of the image must not be manipulated. Thus image manipulation is limited to the following types of adjustment; black and white points, highlights/shadows, dynamic range, contrast/clarity, saturation/vibrance, curves, dodging and burning, distortion correction, white balance, cropping, dust spotting, minor element removal (adding elements to a scene is not permitted), sharpening and noise reduction. The merging of elements from two or more images is strictly prohibited as are stitched images. In respect of any image we reserve the right to request the original RAW file, negative or similar and to disqualify the entry if in our absolute discretion we consider it to have been excessively manipulated including by the use of excessive in-camera effects and photo effects. We also reserve the right to request appropriate releases in respect of photographs that include people, sculptures, statues, paintings, and other works of art. The photograph, in its entirety, must be a single work of original material taken by the entrant. By entering the competition the entrant represents, acknowledges, and warrants that the submitted photograph is an original work created solely by the entrant, that the photograph does not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, moral rights, rights of privacy/publicity or intellectual property rights of any person or entity, and that no other party has any right, title, claim, or interest in the photograph. The photograph must not, in the absolute discretion of the Alverton Gallery, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content or that contains any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law. The caption must be complete and accurate, sufficient to convey the circumstances in which the photograph was taken. Disguising or misrepresenting the origin of your content is cause for disqualification. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all photographs entered and must have obtained written permission of any people featured in the entries or their parents/guardians if children under 18 are featured. The entrant is fully responsible to obtain all model or property releases. Entries must follow the competition theme. The competition is open to amateur and professional artists. Photography is included but video is excluded; images only must be entered. The competition is international. Subject to payment of the entry fee in each case, there is no limit to the number of images that an entrant can submit. We reserve the right to cancel any competition if it is not capable of continuing for any reason beyond our control. If any competition is cancelled we will refund the entry fee to all entrants for the cancelled competition and we will not reserve the right to use any of the submitted images.

 JUDGING

The judges of the Alverton Penzance Photographic competition are (1) Roger Driscoll, director of the Alverton Gallery Penzance and (2) award-winning photographer Martin Smith (regular judges) plus Oliver Hawker of Oliver’s Photographics, Penzance (former Jessops manager – guest judge) and other guest judges appointed from time to time to assist in the judging process. Photographs will be judged on the basis of adherence to and interpretation of the theme, creativity, quality, composition, originality and artistic expression. We reserve the right to request from any entrant the background details of the entrant and image such as a short biography, the camera and lens and techniques used to create the image and the circumstances and inspiration giving rise to the image. From all of the entries, our regular judges will first select a long list of thirty images from which our guest judge (s) will select the ten images which in their opinion best reflect the theme of the competition. The regular judges and guest judge (s) will then collaborate to select the first, second and third prizes. The dates for announcement of the top ten winners, and the start of the winner’s show, will be announced in advance on our website. Decisions of the judges are final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to the judging process. Unfortunately, due to the high number of entries, we will only contact you if your image/s has been chosen as one of our top ten winning entries.

AWARDS:

The top ten winning entrants will be notified by email on or before the relevant announcement date as stated on our website. The top ten winning entrants will receive Gold, Silver, Bronze or Honourable Mention certificates (as the case may be) by email in PDF format and their winning entries will be mounted, framed and displayed at the Alverton Gallery for a period of thirty consecutive days. Photographs of the entire Winners’ Show display will be supplied to the top ten winning entrants in confirmation. In this regard we will request appropriate high resolution digital images to assist in the creation of prints for display. We will also request an “artist biography” from each of the top ten winning entrants. These requests must be compiled with at least ten days prior to the start of the Winner’s Show; failure to comply will be cause for disqualification. The framed photographs will be offered for sale at the Alverton Gallery; the gallery prices will be in our discretion and we will take a 80% commission on each sale whether framed or unframed. Here the entrant will retain copyright to the photograph but once we have been paid the ownership of the display photograph, whether framed or unframed, shall pass to the purchaser. We will promote the winning artists of each exhibition via email, online press releases, online event promotions and social media marketing. By submitting an entry to our competition an entrant acknowledges that, should an image be awarded a place on our top ten winners’ list, the entrant grants us the right to publish, reproduce and exhibit the image by way of a physical print for exhibition at the Alverton Gallery, Penzance, and by way of digital imagery for display on the Alverton Gallery’s website and social media. No fees shall be payable for these uses save that should a physical print be sold by the Alverton Gallery the photographer will be paid 20% of the gallery price. At all times the entrant will be credited as the photographer and copyright holder. Entrants whose photographs are one of the top ten winners also agree to take part in post-competition publicity. Of the top ten entries, the top three entries will receive the following further awards:
Grand Prize
• First Place Winner will receive £75 • Gold/First prize Certificate • First Prize photograph will be will be mounted, framed and displayed at the Alverton Gallery for a period of thirty consecutive days, the photograph will be published on www.thealvertongallery.co.uk for the same period and the photographer will be featured in an online article.
Second Place Winner
• Second Place Winner will receive £50 • Silver/Second Prize Certificate • Second Prize photograph will be will be mounted, framed and displayed at the Alverton Gallery for a period of thirty consecutive days, the photograph will be published on www.thealvertongallery.co.uk for the same period and the photographer will be featured in an online article.
Third Place Winner
• Third Place Winner will receive £25 • Bronze/Third Prize Certificate, • Third Prize photograph will be will be mounted, framed and displayed at the Alverton Gallery for a period of thirty consecutive days, the photograph will be published on www.thealvertongallery.co.uk for the same period and the photographer will be featured in an online article.
The winner of any award shall be solely responsible for any taxes associated with the award. If a top ten winner is unable to be contacted after reasonable attempts have been made then we reserve the right to offer the prize to a runner up. We may arrange to have the top ten entries photographed to publicise and promote the winning entries through means to be agreed to by both parties. In every instance of such use, the artist shall be acknowledged as the creator and copyright owner of the Artwork. In the case of an entry being accepted into the top 10, the entry shall be displayed at the gallery’s next “Winner’s Show” which shall be of thirty day’s duration and in those circumstances the artist shall be subject to the gallery’s wall space rental agreement which can be found on the following link: http://www.thealvertongallery.co.uk/shop/art-and-photography-co-funding/art-photography-co-funding/ Save that for a top 10 entry the gallery will waive the rental fee of £20 referred to in that agreement. The prizes are as stated, no single entrant may win more than one prize, there are no cash alternatives and prizes cannot be sold or transferred to third parties. You acknowledge your responsibility for protecting your entry against misuse by third parties. We assume no responsibility for and are not liable for any misuse of your work by third parties. We will not pass your personal details on to any third party; however your details may be used to contact you about future Alverton Gallery Competitions. Please note that the Alverton Penzance Photographic Competition is not affiliated with any business or organisation other than the Alverton Gallery, 5 Alverton Street, Penzance, Cornwall UK TR18 2QW. These rules are governed by the laws of England and Wales. By entering, entrants will be deemed to have read, understood and to have agreed to be bound by these rules and we reserve the right to exclude any entry from the competition at any time and in our absolute discretion if we have reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules.
SHORT DESCRIPTION:  Hi and welcome to our photo competition. The current competition runs from 23 November 2016 to 23 January 2017 and the theme is 'We Love the Coast.' Among the other prizes on offer, the top ten winning entries will be displayed in our gallery for thirty days. To enter please send your images as email attachments to penzancesubmissions@gmail.com - please see the rules below for the extra stuff you need to do when submitting. The fees are £5 for one entry, £8 for two images and £10 for three. Details of how to pay, the prizes and the full competition rules are set out below. We look forward to seeing your work in the gallery.

Kent's Cornwall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Kent’s Cornwall” – July Exhibition at the Alverton Gallery

Featuring new work by Penzance artist Stewart Kent

July 3 – July 30 2015

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10 am – 5 pm

The Alverton Gallery, Alverton Street, Penzance is pleased to announce its July exhibition “Kent’s Cornwall” featuring Penzance artist Stewart Kent. Stewart’s fine, vibrant oil paintings have been described in the press as “filled with light and movement”, earning him the rare accolade of exhibiting at the prestigious Royal Society of Marine Artists in London. He has lived in Penzance for almost ten years and during this time has established a considerable reputation as a marine artist focusing on fishing vessels and harbour scenes, though his interpretations of moorland landscapes and ancient sites have been equally well received. His work is held in collections both in this country and abroad.

Roger Driscoll, gallery director at the Alverton, says: “Stewart has not previously exhibited in a Penzance gallery and for us it is very exciting as well as an honour to discover such talent right here on our doorstep and to feature his work for the first time in the town. I share Stewart’s love of the West Penwith landscape and coastline and I’m confident his passion will be appreciated by all art lovers visiting our July exhibition.”

Exhibition runs from July 3^rd to July 30^th 2015 Tuesday to Saturday 9.30 am to 5 pm

The Alverton Gallery, 5 Alverton Street, Penzance

Image

Media contact: Roger Driscoll 01736 351668

roger@thealvertongallery.co.uk

www.thealvertongallery.co.uk

www.stewartkent.co.uk

Internet Law

Law Firm Launches "Internet Law" Service

Business Intelligence Magazine October/November 2013

Leading Lincolnshire and Humber region law firm Bridge McFarland has launched a new specialist 'internet law' service to meet a growing need from both businesses and individuals for help in dealing with problems associated with the use of the world wide web.

With the support of leading London barristers, Bridge McFarland's Dispute Resolution team can now offer advice and help to clients on all aspects of internet law including defamation, breach of copyright and online bullying and harassment.

Roger Driscoll, a Chartered Legal Executive with Bridge McFarland, said: "Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have millions of members and the moderators face an almost impossible task in keeping the rogue element under control. As some recent distressing high-profile cases have clearly demonstrated, this can create many problems for genuine users who can find themselves victims of, for example, bullying, harassment, defamation, copyright violation and identity theft. What many people don't realise is that it is sometimes possible to obtain a court order against social media organisations, requiring them to reveal details that can identify members guilty of unlawful acts. In certain cases, as well as seeking compensation in the civil courts, victims might also be able to persuade the police and other Government agencies to take action." 

Bridge McFarland has offices in London, Lincoln, Hull, Grimsby, Market Rasen, Louth, Skegness and Mablethorpe. As well as internet law, the firm's Dispute Resolution team offers a comprehensive service dealing with commercial litigation, land and property matters (including boundary and co-ownership disputes), professional negligence claims, disputed estates, debt recovery and assisting landlords with problem tenants. 

Echo McCool - Review by Botticelli

Bought this for my neice, and she loves it. I read it as well, and for a YA book, I was delighted and carried way by this wonderful story. I recommend this to parents, and their children as a really cool wonderful read.

Botticelli Review

Echo McCool - Review by Fantasy 3

What an amazing book!An easy 5*!!! Adult or child, you'd love Echo McCool!!! The main characters are Echo and Jason, who I fell in love with, once I picked this book up I did not want to put it down!!! The writing is a very high standard, I loved the descriptions, I would love to have been there with them both (saving the day). The author is a very talented writer, and I can't wait for the next instalments or any books he writes in the future.

Fantasy 3's Review

Watching the Pirates

This is a rolling list of ebook pirate sites. I use the word "pirate" because the sites are offering unlawful downloads of my work without my consent. If you are an author, please check to see if these sites are doing the same to you. If so, report the matter to Amazon's legal department (via KDP) and to your publishers BEFORE PIRACY TOTALLY KILLS YOUR SALES.

http://www.ebook3600.com

http://magic-downloads.net

http://www.downloadprovider.me

http://www.mediaplaynow.com/

If you are aware of any similar sites please leave the details by commenting below, anonymously if you wish.

Many thanks

Digital Economy Act 2010

The Digital Economy Act 2010 (c. 24) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom regulating digital media. Introduced by Lord Mandelson, it received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010, and came into force on 8 June 2010 (with the exception of certain sections that came into force on 8 April; and certain other sections that will be brought into force by statutory instrument).^[1]

Online infringement of copyright

Section 3 to 16

The Act's provisions against the act of copyright infringement proved controversial.^[2] It establishes a system of law which aims to first increase the ease of tracking down and suing persistent infringers, and after a minimum of one year permit the introduction of "technical measures" to reduce the quality of, or potentially terminate, those infringers' Internet connections. It also creates a new ex-judicial process to handle appeals.^[3]
The new process will come into force when Ofcom's regulatory code is approved by Parliament. It begins with rightsholders gathering lists of Internet Protocol addresses which they believe have infringed their copyrights (this data could be gathered by connecting to a Peer-to-Peer download of a work one owns, and noting the other IP addresses to which one's computer connects). They would then send each IP number to the appropriate Internet Service Provider, newly-defined in the Act as a provider of IP addresses^[4], along with a "copyright infringement report".
The ISP must then determine whether the infringement report is valid and send a notification to the subscriber in question if it is. The standard of evidence required at this stage is not specified in the Act, but left to be defined in Ofcom's regulatory code. The report and the subscriber it refers to are recorded by the ISP, but no further action is taken.^[5]
The next stage in proceedings involves the rightsholder requesting a "copyright infringement list" from the ISP. This contains an anonymous list of all subscribers who have "reached the threshold set in the [Ofcom] code" with regard to infringement reports for the rightsholder's works.^[6] The rightsholder can then approach a judge to gain a court order to identify some or all of the subscribers on the list, and with that information launch standard copyright infringement litigation against them.

Ofcom's code

Most operational details of the copyright infringement provisions are not defined in the Act, but left to a series of regulatory codes produced by Ofcom. The Act defines only the utmost limits within which these codes can work. On May 28, 2010 Ofcom published a draft initial obligations code for consultation.^[7]
According to the Act Ofcom must produce "progress reports" once every three months on the levels of copyright infringement in the country, with a larger report coming once every 12 months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Act_2010

Publisher Thwarts Ebook Copyright Thieves

Publisher Hachette UK has succeeded in having all its books removed from Mobiles24, a user-generated mobile content platform.
Hachette UK is is one of the largest book publishers in the UK, and consists of several publishing companies, including Headline Publishing Group, Hodder & Stoughton, Orion Publishing Group, Octopus Publishing Group and Hodder Education Group. In 2006, it acquired Time Warner Book Group, which then morphed into Little, Brown Book Group.
We first reported back in February that the publisher was moving to have its eBooks taken off Mobiles24, and issued a ‘letter before action’ to the site’s owner, Mark Worthington, after it made a number of its eBooks available to download for free without permission. Worthington had been given until Wednesday 29th February to comply with the request to remove all unauthorized Hachette content, which has now happened. As The Bookseller reports today, Hachette UK CEO Tim Hely Hutchinson said:

“I am delighted with the outcome of our justified action. This sends out a very clear message to anyone who appropriates our files, infringing our copyright and that of our authors. We have always made it clear that we regard copyright infringement as theft: we will pursue any case where we find it and our actions will be upheld by the court.”

This is the latest case in a stream of incidents involving eBooks piracy. We reported a number of weeks back that two websites which had made thousands of eBooks available illegally as free downloads had been forced offline after being served cease-and-desist orders from a global alliance of publishers.
The pirate operation was thought to be turning over more than £7m each year, netted through advertising, premium-level accounts and user-donations. Library.nu had acquired more than 400,000 copyrighted eBooks, and made them available for free on a site masquerading as a legitimate provider. The same operators also ran the affiliated fileshare hosting service at ifile.it, which facilitated the uploads.
It’s not just little download sites that are being taken to task over their illegal publishing exploits. Last May, we reported that a trio of French publishers was suing Google for almost €10m, after claiming that the Internet giant had scanned thousands of its books without consent as part of its on-going Google Books project.
With music and movie piracy dominating most of the pirate content headlines, with the likes of The Pirate Bay facing a number of  legal wranglings, it seems that the flourishing eBook industry is bringing in a new wave of problems for the digital content industries. There will likely be many more similar cases come to the fore in the coming years, as the Kindles and Nooks of the world continue to win ground over their paper-based counterparts.

http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/03/23/hachette-uk-succeeds-in-having-its-ebooks-removed-from-pirate-website/

OfCom Initial Obligations Code

UK communications regulatory body OFCOM has today published an amended version of its Initial Obligations Code, a set of rules relating to the anti-piracy provisions in the country’s controversial Digital Economy Act. OFCOM clarifies the obligations of rightsholders regarding the auditing of piracy tracking systems, and gives them three times longer to produce evidence. On Government order, subscriber right of appeal has been seriously reduced.
The anti-piracy elements of the UK’s controversial and much-delayed Digital Economy Act are continuing their slow march to implementation with the publication of OFCOM’s updated Initial Obligations Code today.
As the DEA dictates, ISP accounts linked to peer-to-peer infringements will be subject to receiving a series of notifications warning the bill payer that their activities (or those of people in their household) are unacceptable and in need of change.
The amendments to the Code, which provides a set of standards and procedures by which the anti-P2P (mainly BitTorrent related) elements of the Act will be governed, are very much a mixed bag.
First, and on the plus side for subscribers, is that evidence collection systems of copyright holders will have to fall into line with OFCOM standards before they can send any CIRs (copyright infringement reports) to ISPs.
Additionally, the Code states that copyright owners may only send a CIR if they have “gathered evidence in accordance with the approved procedures” which lead to the “reasonable” belief that the subscriber has infringed a rightsholder’s copyright or that he has allowed someone else to use his account in order to do so.
In the original version of OFCOM’s Code rightsholders were given 10 days in which to send CIRs to ISPs, but in the updated code they are allowed a month following the time of detection – roughly three times longer than before.
For their part, ISPs were previously allowed 10 days from receipt of a CIR to notify a customer that they had been tracked. That period has now been extended to one month. This means that there could be a 60 day gap between an alleged infringement and a subscriber being notified, up from just 20 days.
On the downside for consumer protection is the complete removal of a clause which allowed ISPs to reject rightholder CIRs if they felt in their “reasonable opinion” they were invalid.
Originally it was envisaged that so-called ‘first and ‘second’ strike warnings would go out via email with only the ‘third’ going out by recorded regular mail. That has now been scrapped. All warnings will now go out by regular first class mail, meaning that there will be absolutely no proof that a subscriber has received his third warning.
In addition to conveying the warning itself, CIRs will now have to show the time and date when any infringement took place (as opposed to simply when the evidence was gathered) and also display the number of previous CIRs sent to the subscriber.
OFCOM reports that it has also introduced a requirement that there be a 20 day gap introduced between the date a previous CIR was sent out to a subscriber and evidence being valid for the creation of a subsequent CIR.
Under the previous iteration of the Code, copyright owners would only be able to request a copyright infringement report from ISPs once every three months, and the service provider would be given 5 days to produce it. That three month period has been reduced to a single month and ISPs will have double the time – 10 days – to produce it.
Under the Code subscribers will be able to lodge an appeal against wrongful accusations of infringement. The time to do so has now been clarified as 20 days from the date of receiving a CIR. It will cost an Internet account holder £20.00 to do so.
Finally, the amended Code ends with notes that the UK Government ordered the removal of two elements, both of which would have given a level of protection to subscribers.
“On the instruction of Government we have removed the ability for subscribers to appeal on any other ground on which they choose to rely,” the report notes, adding:
“On the instruction of Government we have removed the requirement for ISPs and copyright owners to provide a statement showing how their processes and systems are compliant with the Data Protection Act.”
This draft Code is now open for a one month consultation period before being presented to parliament later this year. Letters will start going out in 2014…..maybe.

http://torrentfreak.com/new-details-of-uk-piracy-monitoring-plan-made-public-120626/

Publishers Fight Pirates In Europe

Publishers are going after eBook piracy in Europe. An international alliance of 17 publishers, which includes HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, The McGraw-Hill Companies and Oxford University Press, is taking legal against the operators of the websites library.nu and ifile.it.
Yesterday, the Irish-based operators of www.library.nu and www.ifile.it were served with court orders. In the complaint, the publishers claim that www.library.nu illegally acquired more than 400,000 copyrighted eBooks and made them available for free. In addition, the site owners allegedly earned more than $10 million in advertising from the site.
This may not be the first kind of attact on pirate sites. Tom Allen, president/CEO of Association of American Publishers stated: “For every rogue site that is taken down, there are hundreds more demanding similar effort.  I can’t think of a more timely example of the need for additional tools to expedite such action.”
Neither site is currently active. Library.nu currently redirects to Google Books.  Ifile.it has an error message that says “No upload servers currently available, try uploading at a later time.”

http://www.mediabistro.com/appnewser/publishers-fight-pirates-in-europe_b20291

FACT - The Federation Against Copyright Theft

TO AUTHORS IN THE UK concerned about eBook piracy we all need to come down off the fence and do something about it. Make a list of all sites offering illegal downloads of your book and then report the matter either to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or to the Federation Against Copyright Theft at http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/contact/com_form.htm

From the FACT website:

FACT’s primary purpose is to protect the United Kingdom’s film and broadcasting industry against counterfeiting, copyright and trademark infringements.

Established in 1983, FACT works in three key areas:

• Online piracy in all forms – with a focus on those distributing large volumes of illicit film and TV content

• Hard goods piracy – organised criminal networks operating in the UK (and worldwide) have adopted audiovisual piracy as a crime type to generate substantial illegal profits

• Prevention and detection of illegal recording in cinemas – over 90% of the counterfeit versions of movies originate initially from a copy recorded in a cinema

FACT works closely across the UK with Police, Trading Standards, HM Revenue & Customs, UK Border Agency, Serious and Organised Crime Agency and the other agencies. FACT also has a close association with other industry enforcement bodies.

FACT’s Intelligence Unit plays a key role in assessing, analysing and reporting on the threats to its members’ businesses from criminal activity and tasks FACT’s own investigators as well as producing strategic documents available to partner agencies.

FACT plays a key role in creating awareness of the dangers associated with counterfeiting and continually gathers evidence to prove that film piracy is linked to other criminal activities, from benefit fraud to violence.

FACT has an important role in ensuring that the government and public understand the threat to the UK’s film and television industry and to the community at large from the growing threat of DVD and online piracy.

Film piracy in the UK is:

• A business generating £200m a year for criminals
• A crime which affects other people and the wider community – involving benefit fraud, people smuggling, drugs and other serious criminality
• A real crime, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment

The seemingly innocent purchase of a cheap DVD from an irregular source can therefore have far reaching effects. For further examples of the effects of DVD piracy in the UK, please go to our Media Centre and view the latest case studies and statistics.

While the Federation is not a statutory body, it is accepted as a prosecution authority in its own right and facilitates the investigation and prosecution of those involved in this type of crime.

http://www.fact-uk.org.uk

Ebook Revolution Postponed due to Piracy?

My advice to authors; put the title of your book in Google followed by the word download, you may be horrified by the result. Now I was a lawyer for 20 years so I know it's important to get the facts straight before making wild allegations. However if you click the link below it appears that a bunch of people are offering my book for download without my permission. I've only ever uploaded my book to Kdp.Amazon, Smashwords and Google Books. With all of these I set a price of at least 99c and I thought the files would be rights-protected. Therefore NO WAY should anyone else be offering free downloads of my book. THIS AFFECTS ALL AUTHORS; even if you have not published your book in e-format, the print version can be scanned and offered as a pdf. If piracy is going on then it seems that the Jack Sparrow in question owes me a considerable sum of money. JACK SPARROW BEWARE, I've seen what happens when the lawyers get involved, it's not a pretty sight. 

Link to Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time

Echo McCool - Review by Colesy999

This book is an absolute must have for 77p on the kindle. Having said that, it's worth £7.00 new!

The description is of an unmatched quality and combined with a breath taking story-line equates to quite literally the best book you have ever read.

And you should see my collection of books...

Colesy999 Review on Amazon.co.uk 

Princess Merida - Beyond the Trailer

Princess Merida from Disney Pixar's Brave hits theaters in 2012! Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph introduces you to the newest Disney Princess, Princess Merida! Voiced by Kelly MacDonald, she is the first Pixar princess and joins Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Mulan, Pocahontas, Tiana, and Mulan! Learn all about Princess Merida before Disney Pixar's Brave in 2012! Is Princess Merida your new favorite Disney Princess? Beyond The Trailer is associated with YouTube Next Lab.

Echo McCool - Thu Barton Review

Big thanks to the lovely Thu Barton for this review on Goodreads:


The character of Echo McCool reminds me very much of the Princess Merida character in the Disney Pixar film BRAVE. Both are feisty and strong and red-haired and grew up in a British folklore world. Echo McCool was first published in January 2011 but Pixar must've been working on Princess Merida for a long time so I'm not sure which came first - but both are totally awesome! 

Thu Barton's Review on Goodreads 

The Tally - E G Wolverson - A Warped Whodunnit!

Hull Daily Mail 11 May 2012: "A village author's new book has been voted March's best read. Set in Hull, Eddy Wolverson's tale The Tally follows a group of students in a warped whodunnit. His first draft was written while Mr Wolverson worked in the cloakroom at Hull Students' Union. The story was voted best book in March by users of the website www.goodreads.com. It costs £7.99 and is available on Amazon, or from bookshops on order. A £3.99 ebook version of The Tally is available from Amazon's Kindle Store."

Echo McCool - Tom D Harris Review

Son to a missing father, son to a murdered mother, brother to a kidnapped sister, Jason Fleeting will have his vengeance in this life...not the next.

When twelve year old Jason falls out of a tree and into a coma in the grounds of the children's home where he lives, he finds himself on a beach at the edge of time; somewhere between the living and the afterlife.
Here, he meets a beautiful dryad, Fenella, who recites a tale of ancient conflicts, war, bravery and death. She also reveals that Jason and his sister, Lauren, are descendants of a human-dryad and tasks Jason to return to earth to save her daughter, Echo McCool. In turn Echo will help Jason to rescue his sister from her kidnappers.

With Echo rescued from Witch Wood, she uses the dryad gift of Gewita to look into the past to unravel the mysteries of Jason's past and his sister's kidnapping. Together they delve deeper and deeper into the sinister secrets of the Cobalt family and the eerie Ravenstone Manor.

With the help of a (rock) band of minstrels, as echoes of a female Robin Hood resonate through the pages, they encounter dodgy coppers, arson attacks, collapsing tunnels and other endless confrontations, but don't panic - Echo knows Kung Fu.

A pacey, page turner from Roger K Driscoll, packed with great characters and a great sense of fun. This action adventure flirts with crime and mystery as fantasy smashes headlong into reality.

Echo and Jason may not be able to predict their futures in the Gewita but in the words of a popular indie-rock band.

I predict a sequel...I predict a sequel...

Echo McCool - Tom D Harris Review

Echo McCool - Imperatrix Review

I bought this for my 10 year old but because she loved it and kept going on about it I decided to have a read as well. Echo is half-blood Dryad girl who gets shot by this poison arrow in the dark ages and escapes by hiding in this hollow tree, but she doesnt realize that shell get stuck there and the poison will put her to sleep for something like 800 years. In the present a 12 year old boy called Jason is in this coma and having a near death experience where he meets Echos mother who says shell heal him and tell him how to find his kidnapped sister Lauren if he rescues Echo before lumberjacks cut her in half. He agrees and awakens Echo and they go off together to rescue his sister and restore an inheritance to a new friend. Overall this has good characters, its very readable and fast with loads of action and tension. Were both looking forward to the sequel already.

Echo McCool - Imperatrix Review

Echo McCool - S O'Neill Review

Many authors have attempted to do what Mr Driscoll does with Echo McCool, but few have succeeded. It's a very traditional story but at the same time new. It feels like a timeless classic has been updated to appeal to kids today. I was watching Sherlock Holmes on BBC One the other day and it put me in mind of how the makers of that show have updated an old idea to make it appeal to viewers today. Mr Driscoll has done the same here with children's fiction.


The stars, Jason and Echo, complement each other very well. Mr Driscoll does not give in to temptation and just have Jason 'do a Pygmalion' on Echo - instead he has them learn from and help each other. Yes, Jason is resourceful and has modern knowledge, but Echo is uniquely skilled, sharp not to mention self-sufficient. "I know not ring the police" she says, but I think she is not just saying she does not know who the police are - I think she is intelligent enough to work that one out for herself - instead she is saying "I would not ever use the police." Echo's strength is reflected in other ways too: e.g. Jason derides Echo's medieval language and tries to teach her how people speak today ("All this perchance and thou art stuff - no one speaks like that any more. It's better to say perhaps and you are.") Echo then explains to him how "thee" differs from "you" and how modern language is actually a dumbed down version of what she speaks - it's less specific. I found this a joy to read as when I have read books like this before, the authors have tended to make the person from the past seem stupid when in fact they are just not educated about modern things. In many ways though they are cleverer.


I also like how Mr Driscoll combines Lord of the Rings-style mythology with modern day action. Going from a dryad netherworld to a couple of working class blokes cutting down a tree really underlines the differences between the main characters' worlds, and he makes each character seem believable.


The story ends on a high note and the promise of more adventures to come, and I am looking forward to reading more about Echo and Jason and their journey together. 

Echo McCool - M J Review

As the father of a young baby girl, I've spent the past few months' bedtimes trapped in the pages of picture books plucked from either my own childhood or the current children's charts, dutifully trawling through thinly-veiled allegories and sledgehammer-subtle moralising. However, having recently met the author of this book, who really enthused me about his work, I decided to shelve the likes of "Dinosaur Sleepover" and "Nicky's Noisy Night" for the time being and instead offer my daughter a serialised glimpse of what she's likely be reading in a decade or so's time.

Aimed at what booksellers now label "young adult readers", this novel strives to build a bridge between classic children's literature and the vibrant, much more fantastic adventures that generally see print or go before the movie cameras today. Driscoll's story takes `Famous Five' sensibilities and injects them into a fast-paced, magic-wielding, karate-kicking tale that plays out before the mind's eye in definition far sharper than 1080p. There's still an adventure around every corner, but if they involve Echo then they're far more likely to sate the appetite of most twenty-first century teens than anything in Blyton's arguably outmoded repertoire.

What I think really sets "Echo McCool: Outlaw through Time" apart from its peers though is the quality of Driscoll's world-building. Though some of his finesse might be lost on the youngest of the book's readers, the author is clearly well-versed in medieval philosophies, and that familiarity really bleeds through in his eloquent prose. It's almost a shame that we couldn't have spent longer in Echo's native time, so evident is the author's ardour, but ultimately the book's humour - and, indeed, drama - is borne of Echo being a girl out of time.

Reading a book like this really highlights just how fickle the world of publishing is, and how fine the line is between a Harry Potter or a Lara Croft and an Echo McCool. Will queues of youngsters be camping out in front of stores awaiting the release of "Echo McCool VII", or playing to death the latest Echo McCool video game? I really couldn't say, but based solely on the appeal of this first instalment in the series, the potential is certainly there. Long may the legend continue. 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004KAB9R4/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending