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

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 - 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 

Echo McCool - "Really really good" - Jacob Sutherlin Review

I'm very impressed with this one! As an older dad of 2 I can honestly say that I really enjoyed this book. I think that readers of all ages will fall for Echo. Don't let the genre being in middle grade steer you wrong if you're an adult. It's a really good story!

The writing is FAR from "childish" and is composed in a way that adults and "tweens" can both enjoy. If you're an adventure or fantasy fan, it's definitely work checking out.

Echo McCool - "A Quality Book" - Northgate Review

Echo McCool Outlaw Through Time is one of those cross-over books:the storytelling seems to be aimed at children, and the two maincharacters are twelve years old, but the story can be enjoyed by adults too. I think the optimum age would be slightly older
children, say 11 or 12. Echo McCool is a slightly Lara Croft-ish
character because she can do Ninja type fighting, and so on.
The story is mainly about Echo who, at the age of 12, escapes her
foe in medieval time and sleeps inside a hollow tree for hundreds
of years. She awakes in modern times and meets Jason Fleeting and has loads of adventures with him.
I think that the end was a little too abrupt: most people would want to keep reading! However, this didn't spoil the book for me at all. Overall, this book is quality and you should go out and buy it!

Echo McCool - "Enchanting" - Sammi Williams Review

I picked up this book after seeing some recommendations that fans of Stig of the Dump would enjoy it. So, being the Stig fanatic that I am, I decided to give it a try. Echo McCool (a twelve-year-old half dryad girl from the 13th Century) gets chased through a forest and shot by a poisoned arrow. But she has a magical card to play, she hides inside a hollow tree that, in time, will cure her of the poison. But the spell lasts a lot longer than she thought and she finds herself in the 21st century, when she is awakened by a boy called Jason Fleeting. Then the story becomes an enchanting tale of a unique friendship. Although Echo and Jason have had very different lives they learn a lot from each other. They have many adventures, some funny and some exciting. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages.

Echo McCool - "My 11-year-old niece absolutely loved it!"

I purchased this book for my 11 year old niece, and she absolutely loved it! It was one of her books that she wouldn't stop talking about. The other day I was sorting through my kindle library and started reading this book on a whim and I actually ended up reading the entire thing myself.

It's a great read for kids, with lots of action and very descriptive writing. And if you happen to be an adult who appreciates a well-written story, then I'd recommend it to you also. 5 stars!

Echo McCool - Andy McMiles Review

I bought Echo McCool Outlaw Through Time for my eleven-year-old daughter. We read it together and we both loved it. This is a fun book for any age and it can appeal to both boys and girls. That is pretty powerful in my opinion. It is a real growth experience for the young reader and it helps with growing up, and learning about the great adventure that is life. Thank you so much to the author Roger Driscoll for the hard work and beautiful imagination.

Echo McCool - "A Novel to Rival the Rest" - Doug, Brooklyn Review

I think that the world will be hearing a lot more of Echo McCool. I thought her character was so well created and the blend of being a wielder of magic, with the self-abilities of a fighter was excellent. The fact that she is not just another human, but of dryad blood adds the icing on the cake for me. So many authors re-use fantasy characters that have been written a thousand times before (not that this is always a bad thing), but I loved the fact that this was something new and created fresh in the authors imaginative mind. I like the pace, which keeps moving forward, never hitting dull "dead zones" where you end up skimming through half of the book.

Soooooo, in a nutshell this book rocks!! = )

Echo McCool - "This Book Blew Me Away" - Bomar Habasu Review

With so many poorly written works coming out on the market, it's almost discouraging to go hunting for a gem. Luckily for fans of fantasy, Echo McCool is here!! My friend read this first and wouldn't stop urging me to give it a try. Finally I did after procrastinating for months and absolutely loved it!

The story is filled with adventure, suspense, mystery, and sooo much more. I think the author has an incredible way of allowing readers to see, smell, and feel what is happening in the story. From the moment Jason crossed paths with Echo, I knew I was going to be in for a wild ride.

This book d id not disappoint and I think readers of all ages are going to enjoy it. Can't wait to read more!!

Echo McCool - "Truly Loved this Book! Classic Adventure - J Malliet Review

I bought this book on a recommendation and my son and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I'll recommend it to you. A great book knows no age barrier. It reminds me of the Lemony Snicket books. The author combines crisp narrative with sharp, witty dialogue and not a word is wasted. The characters stay true throughout in this classic adventure story. This is a perfect example of well-written, well-edited fiction for 'tweens. There's nothing too graphic here so no worries for parents. The mystical parts aren't too complicated and the author weaves them effortlessly into the story without pulling you out of the narrative.

Well done. We are looking forward to more adventures from Echo and Jason!

Roger K Driscoll Hull Daily Mail 3 June 2011

Roger K Driscoll Beverley Guardian 13 May 2011

Roger K Driscoll Beverley Advertiser 2 June 2011