Law

Tenuous Marketing Email from Amazon

From my Inbox:

Dear Amazon.co.uk Customer,

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Urm...

Creative Commons Scotland Licenses are Live

The Scots Law Creative Commons Licenses are now finalised and available from the Creative Commons web site. The CC Scotland effort was launched on the 2nd of April 2005 here in Edinburgh.

The English 1689 Bill of Rights

Robin de Crittenden is a 67 year old man who lives near Wolverhampton who apparently is fighting a parking fine arguing that a provision of the 1689 Bill of Rights provides that they are unlawful;

That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void.

Although the Bill of Rights is considered, along with inter alia the Magna Carta, the Scottish Claim of Right and the Reform Act, as 'constitutional documents' they are not afforded particular special status in the UK in the same way as they might in other countries. Rights acquired under the Bill of Rights are not superior to any other law whether antecedent or subsequent, unlike for example in the USA where subsequent law derives its authority from the framework provided by the constitution, the first ten amendments to which form the USA Bill of Rights.

For this reason, Mr. de Crittenden doesn't have much of a hope that he will escape the charge - but it is a valiant effort.

A spokeswoman for the National Parking Adjudication Service said no previous challenge to parking fines using the Bill of Rights had been successful.

Until now there has been no judicial review of the outcome of the adjudication, though any such effort on the grounds suggested would fail.

Good to be back

I have had a great summer! I've been mountain biking all over the place in Scotland, had a week in Brussels and two weeks in California and I have had time to think and relax and get some loose ends tidied up. But it is great to be back at Uni. My courses this semester are shaping up to be pretty interesting and more free flowing, I hope, than just learning facts.

I've been pretty tardy as far as this site is concerned, posting frequency has dropped way off and I still haven't fixed comments. I will spend some time reviewing options regarding comments soon, I miss the feedback which some of you were kind enough to contribute. And with the nights 'drawing in', as they say, I will probably post more too. That may be a good or bad thing, I'm not sure!

It may be cold but it's still summer

I had my last exam on Tuesday. Didn't do much to celebrate because I was pretty tired, but as A-L dutifuly reports the gym and playing pool were the activities of the rest of the day. So, I guess I'm finished now until September or so.

Need to think of things to do in the summer. Apart from finishing a few long overdue 'projects'... Someone already suggested "get a job" so don't go commenting telling me that's what I should do. Gregor sent me a link saying "need a project for the summer?" - but I think it looks too much like hard work. Other suggestions are welcome...

Happy holidays y'all ;)

Exam Over

Int'l Law exam this a.m. at 9.30. Last night I thought I'd covered most things and about midnight debated whether to do more on the Law of the Sea. I did, fell asleep about 6 and woke at 9.10. Oops. Taxi. Exam. Pint. Went OK I think; I never can really tell. Picked up an essay I'd written on Int'l Law and was worth 20% of total. Got 70%. Only need 33% in exam to get pass therefore. All good.

Monday brings two exams back to back; Criminal Law & Economics. I've been dipping into Law Basics Criminal Law today but haven't really thought too much about it yet. Unfortunately I'm a last minute sort of guy.

Diversity in creative licenses

Andres Guadamuz comments on the BBC/C4/bfi/OU Creative License and points out the key differences between it and the Creative Commons Licensing 'platform'. Namely

the CAL is "very territorial"
2.1 The Licensor hereby grants to You a Non-Commercial, No-Endorsement, payment-free, non-exclusive licence within the United Kingdom for the duration of copyright in the Work to copy and/or Share the Work and/or create, copy and/or Share Derivative Works on any platform in any media.
and "there is no endorsement or derogatory treatment"
2.2.5. do not use the Work (which includes any underlying contributions to the work) and/or any Derivative Work for any illegal, derogatory or otherwise offensive purpose or through the use of the Work or any Derivative Work bring the Licensor's (or underlying rights owners') reputation into disrepute;

The CC licenses do not seek to protect creator's 'moral rights' (i.e. the right to be identified as the author of a work, the right to object to derogatory treatment - as opposed to economic rights). The CAL is able to deal with this more effectively than CC could by virtue of being limited to the three UK jurisdictions. Andres concludes that the diversification of licenses is a good thing, different licenses suit different purposes, and notes, "Trying to get everyone in the creative industries to choose the same licence is like herding cats."

BBC Creative Archive Launch

The BBC have launched today their BBC Creative Archive License Group.

The Creative Archive Licence Group was formed on April 13th 2005 to promote the use of a single, shared user licence scheme for the downloading of moving images, audio and stills. The Group's legal framework is known as the Creative Archive Licence, and by sharing the same scheme we hope to make it easier for users to understand and to respect the framework.

As I understand it the license is a derivative of the Creative Commons licensing scheme and while it claims to be for the whole of the UK, its terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, with no specific provision for Scotland or Northern Ireland jurisdictions. License group members currently are the BBC, Channel 4, the Open University and the British Film Institute. There is not as yet any content licensed under the CA License.

During the pilot phase

the BBC plans to release 100 hours of content under the license
the british film institute will release footage including silent comedy, early literary adaptations, newsreel footage and archive footage of British cities in the early 20th century from the National Film and Television Archive
the Open University will release clips of natural features, such as aerial views of the Franz Josef glacier and plan to including footage of, e.g., the interior of Sienna Cathedral
and Channel 4 will provide a resource for aspiring documentary film-makers that will include copyright-cleared stock footage for users to incorporate into their films as well as Pix n mix providing av content for VJ's.

I haven't looked at the license sufficiently to determine the differences between it and the CC England & Wales license, though I assume it primarily is concerned with a UK only requirement. Incidentally, the England & Wales CC License went live today, congratulations to the team who have been working on it for the last 16 months.

This is however a significant milestone for the 'some rights reserved' movement and will drive creativity in the UK. Because the BBC is license fee funded they are releasing the content only to UK Internet users. They are not however using DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology on it, relying instead on a GeoIP solution to allow downloads from only UK hosts (and those smart enough to circumvent GeoIP restrictions)...

Larry Lessig, Scotland and Creative Commons

I've just been at an Edinburgh Science Festival event, Cyberlaw: who controls access to ideas on the net?. Organised by the Edinburgh School of Law's AHRB Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, the panel was chaired by Lilian Edwards with panel members Andres Guadamuz (also of AHRB), Bill Thompson (the BBC technology journalist) and Professor Larry Lessig of Stanford Law School.

]]> Larry Lessig gave a half hour presentation on why the law isn't up to speed with our increasingly digital lifestyles and how copyright laws inhibit freedoms long taken for granted. And an impressive presentation it was. The panel discussion sadly wasn't up to much, primarily I think because the time (1hr) was short for the whole gig.

They did however launch the Creative Commons Scotland project which aims to port the Creative Commons licenses into Scots Law compliance. There is a draft CC license available and they are inviting comment with the view of launching the license by Summer. Joint project leader Jonathan Mitchell QC, in a post to the mailing list says of the CC licenses,

" We believe that many creators of intellectual work in Scotland, not only in the performing arts but also in the academic and professional and artistic communities, and among other writers, will welcome these licences. Creative Commons licences will help in spreading their work more widely; they are good for those who wish their work and ideas to reach as wide an audience as possible, and they are good for the public by freeing intellectual work from artificial and unwanted copyright limitations. "

Update: qwghlm has posted some notes from the event.

Lessig on Lessig in the West Wing

Larry Lessig comments on his portrayal in the West Wing:

" it captured beautifully the single most important thing that I learned from my years working on "constitutionalism" in Eastern Europe: That 90% of the challenge is to build a culture that respects the rule of law, and that practices it. A document doesn't build that culture. And no one has a formula -- either for building it, or preserving it. Certainly not a Law Professor."

New Journal: European Constitutional Law Review

There's a new journal on the go, the European Constitutional Law Review. All content is free, presumably for this month only, and looks worthy of a trawl through.

UK Supreme Court location announced

The constitutional shake up which was on ice due to lack of a suitable building and then narrowed down to Middlesex Guildhall or Somerset House might be back on track with an announcement that Middlesex Guildhall will be the home of the new Supreme Court, provided regulatory hassles like English Heritage and planning permissions are no obstacle. Lord Falconer's full written statement to the Lords details the Supreme Court proposals.

The Law Lords went for a viewing in April at which time it was reported,

The "art nouveau gothic" Middlesex Guildhall, built between 1906 and 1913 and decorated with medieval-style gargoyles, is the only site on the Department of Constitutional Affairs shortlist within easy reach of parliament.

It meets the law lords' requirement for a suitably "prestigious" building and complies with the wish of Lord Falconer, the constitutional affairs secretary, that the UK's new top court should not be sited too near the Royal Courts of Justice, the centre of the English court system.

Although less than a century old, the Guildhall is on a historic site, and incorporates a 17th-century doorway, a remnant of Tothill Fields prison which previously stood on the site.

There still remains the challenge of getting the Constitutional Reform bill through Parliament.

Christmas Holiday 2004

With the completion of my exam this afternoon in the principles of the 'dismal science' comes holiday time! The exam was I think pretty easy... But that's irrelevant now. I've got a few bits of 'other work' to finish up before heading north for Christmas and then I've got to start thinking about presents and whatnot. For now though it's Holiday Time and for that I'm happy.

Sony bullying Blogger

Sony are being nasty to Jason Kottke over his posting of Jeopardy 'spoilers' - af all things. I don't really understand why they have any kind of control of what he says, he is presumably not in some kind of contract which grants him priviliged information in return for non-disclosure duties. So, how is he obliged not to talk about the show? First Amendment? Fair Use? Seems like it is just a big corporation bullying the little guy who doesn't have the resources they have. I'm sure Sony will drop it (and they ought to apologise) but if they don't then I'm sure the community will rally.

Ironically, Kottke helped spread the news which led to massive viewers for Sony's show. Now they are just gonna hurt their brand with this dumb stunt which seems to be turning into a story.

Abolition of Feudal Tenure

Today marks the end of 880 years of legal history with the abolition of the remnants of a feudal system (i.e. "the entire system whereby land is held by a vassal on perpetual tenure from a superior") in Scotland. This property revolution is legislated in the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act (2000), Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004.

Professor MacQueen explains in Scots Law News that "In combination [the three acts] effect a far-reaching modernisation of land law in Scotland, with the concepts of feudal law giving way to those of the Civil Law." He continues,

The remainder of the population of Scotland seemed strangely unaware of the advance of individual ownership and the death of medievalism in Scots law. However, 880 years of legal history is indeed at an end. But who knows, to paraphrase the American scholar Grant Gilmore writing of the death of contract in 1974, what strange resurrection the Easter-tide may bring?