From: steveh@orbital.demon.co.uk (Stephen Hebditch)
Subject: Re: Anyone heard of UK proposal to licence BBSes?
Organization: TQM Communications, London, UK
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:56:43 GMT

In article <C10EHL.E2n@demon.co.uk> gtoal@pizzabox.demon.co.uk (Graham Toal) writes:
>[posted to comp.org.eff.talk; xposted to uk.net and uk.politics - follow-
>ups to comp.org.eff.talk please]

[I added uk.net again as it otherwise might miss some people]

>I just got mail (following up from some other thread in this group) from
>someone in the UK who mentioned that there is a move afoot to see that
>Bulletin Boards in the UK are licenced.  He said the people behind it were
>FAST and ELSPA.  I only know of FAST (Federation Against Software Theft -
>a right-wing bunch of <expletive deleted>'s who have raised the "Anton
>Pillar" order to an art form. (An Anton Pillar order is a sort of
>civil search-warrant over here))  Anyone know who ELSPA is?
>
>Has anyone heard anything of this proposal?  Apparently it has been
>discussed on Fido bulletin boards, but it certainly hasn't hit the uk
>net groups.

The story so far goes something like this...

The European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and the
Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) are pushing for computer
bulletin boards in the UK to be licenced.

ELSPA is a trade association whose members are mostly big-name computer
games software houses and distributors. FAST works on behalf of
software companies to put out PR against piracy, locate piracy where it
exists and aid the subsequent prosections of the people involved. 
Its board includes representatives from Microsoft, Lotus and
Wordperfect as well as Roger Bennett, Chief Executive of ELSPA. The two
organisations work very closely together.

FAST and ELSPA believe that there is growing problem with pirated
software and pornography being made available through bulletin boards
in the UK. This came to light after an internal memo from ELSPA was
published on Fidonet, which also stated an aim to see all bulletin
boards having to be registered. In a follow-up message, a FAST official
said he considered that the current situation in which anyone with the
right equipment can communicate around the world was anarchic, and
should be much more strictly controlled. When a possible figure of 1000
UKP a year for a licence was suggested it was not denied. This would
effectively wipe out all the smaller boards, and force the others to
start charging in order to be able to cover their costs.

In a subsequent interview, Bob Hay, Secretary of FAST, stressed that at
present they were only interested in exploring ways of cutting down on
software piracy, which may or may not eventually include licensing.
They were talking about possible solutions to Oftel, the Government
body which oversees telecommunications in the UK, and the Data
Protection Registrar, which upholds laws on personal data. However, he
did express reservations that at present anyone with the right
equipment can set up a bulletin board, and felt that some sort of
licensing would be in order.

Roger Bennett of ELSPA has said that he hoped such measures would be
welcomed by the legitimate bulletin board community as a way of helping
to protect their reputation. The intention would be to make it easier
to trace non-desirable material and ensure boards kept to a code of
practice, rather than having the licence act as a levy to subsidise
losses through piracy, as has been suggested before for blank audio
tapes.

Although ex-policeman Bob Hay has stressed that they see software
piracy as their primary concern, it was made clear in an interview with
Roger Bennett that they are also greatly concerned about pornography.
This would also prove a convenient issue with which to attract Members
of Parliament, particularly in the light of recent 'playground porn'
scare stories appearing in the media.


The unfinished bit I'm hoping to get some answers for tomorrow includes

- Whether FAST do actually have any evidence of widespread computer
piracy using bulletin boards in the UK.

- More detail on the proposals they are considering, and whether they
think they'll have any effect on people who are already happy to break
the law.

- How they intend to define bulletin boards. Any public access computer
system? Computers on Fidonet, Usenet or other messaging networks?
Internet FTP sites in the UK? Companies like CompuServe with a presence
in the UK but with the actual computers operating elsewhere?

- What sort of policing they want to see.

At present, Fidonet are the most advanced in their campaign against
these proposals. There has also been a large amount of discussion on
the CIX conferencing system in London. It still needs all the different
networks and groups to pull together in something like a UK version of
the EFF though.

-- 
Stephen Hebditch  TQM Communications  steveh@orbital.demon.co.uk +44 836 825962
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk