Last week, the General Election campaign has well and truly kicked off with numerous visits across the country, parties struggling to find candidates for even the safest of seats, the term ‘Coalition of Chaos’ uttered more times than anyone would care to count, campaign pledge gimmicks, the term ‘Mugwump’ used, more surprising MP resignations and some candidate selections sorted.

Anti Copying in Design (ACID) is a member of The Alliance for Intellectual Property and each week The Alliance creates a parliamentary update which ACID shares with its members.

Digital Economy ACT

The Digital Economy Bill has been passed!

Matt Hancock responded to the Amendments on behalf of the Government on Wednesday, and stated that the Bill has been widely supported in both Houses across all parties.

In response to Amendment 40, the Minister confirmed that the Government has established a Code of Practice to issue guidance to social media providers on how they should act in circumstances of bullying and criminality. However, he did say that the guidance will address companies proportionately, as some social media providers are already taking steps to address these issues. Labour (Louise Haigh responding) also spoke in favour of this. Although not an issue addressing IP specifically on social media, this would is a good opportunity for the Alliance to discuss IP infringement on social media to the Government following Purdah.

The Government accepted Amendment 46 – the only Amendment on Part 4: Intellectual Property – on e-book lending by public libraries. Labour were also content with the Amendment.

Among other speakers during the consideration of amendments, Chi Onwurah, Damian Collins, Calum Kerr, Nigel Huddleston, Clare Perry, Nigel Adams and Sharon Hodgson also spoke (on secondary ticketing, child pornography, social media code of practice, connectivity and further issues). You can read the full Hansard here (and I’ve also attached an email with more information, minutes of proceedings etc.)

Illicit Streaming Devices ruled illegal

This week, fully loaded streaming devices have been ruled illegal by the European Court of Justice. The ECJ sided against Dutch man Mr Wullems, who sold multimedia players through a website. The new ruling puts pirated streams on the same legal footing as illegal downloads. It said the underlying technology of the players was legal, but noted that the boxes were often configured in a way that promoted piracy.

The above does not represent policy but is a weekly report of parliamentary activity prepared by the Alliance on IP matters and other broad areas of interest to the creative industries which the Alliance has shared with its members.“1/3″]”105”]