Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith, motivated by their humanist convictions.
The Identity Cards Act 2006 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created National Identity Cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, which were voluntarily issued to British citizens. It also created a database known as the National Identity Register (NIR), which has since been destroyed. In all around 15,000 National Identity Cards were issued until the act was repealed in 2011. Separate versions of identification cards were issued for non-UK citizens and the Identity Card for Foreign nationals was continued in the form of Biometric Residence Permits after 2011.
Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association with the UK-registered charity Index on Censorship, which are both chaired by the British television broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips. Index is based at 1 Rivington Place in central London.
NO2ID is a public campaign group, formed in 2004 to campaign against the United Kingdom government's plans to introduce UK ID Cards and the associated National Identity Register (NIR), which it believes has negative implications for privacy, civil liberties and personal safety. The NIR and ID cards were abolished by the Identity Documents Act 2010. Since then, it has been involved in other campaigns.
Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particularly related to the protection and realization of existing rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression, in the context of digital technologies, especially the Internet. The laws of several countries recognize a right to Internet access.
Stop Murder Music is a campaign to oppose Caribbean artists who produce music with lyrics alleged to glorify murder of homosexual men. The campaign was mainly against Jamaican musicians, primarily dancehall and reggae artists such as Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, and the Bobo Ashanti Rastafarians Sizzla and Capleton.
Becky Hogge is a UK-based music and technology writer and the first full-time executive director of the Open Rights Group, resigning in 2008. She was previously the managing editor, and then the technology director and technology commissioning editor for openDemocracy.net. During her time with openDemocracy she helped establish the China environment website chinadialogue.net, along with editor Isabel Hilton. She is a former board member of the Open Knowledge Foundation. and a member of its advisory board.
LGBT+ Labour, the Labour Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, is a socialist society related to the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Originally called the Gay Labour Group, the purpose of this organisation is to campaign within the Labour Party and wider Labour movement to promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and to encourage members of the LGBT community to support the Labour Party.
Zack Exley is an American political and technology consultant.
J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, is an LGBT rights organisation in Jamaica, founded in 1998, and works for the human rights of lesbians, all-sexuals, and gays in Jamaica and the world. It is part of the Caribbean Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (C-FLAG).
The Big Brother Awards for the United Kingdom
gogoyoko.com was an online music store and social networking music website where artists could sell directly to their fans. The site offered free streaming of all tracks, which were subsidized with advertisements in the music store. The focus of the site was on independent music both from independent artists and labels and distributors working in the independent music sector. The aim of the site was to have artists paid fairly for the sale and distribution their music on the Internet, without having to go through a record label or digital aggregators.
Suw Charman-Anderson is the former Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, a campaign group based in London. She is also a journalist, social software consultant, blogger and public speaker. Named one of the "50 most influential Britons in technology" by The Daily Telegraph, she has also worked to gain recognition for other women in technological fields, including by founding Ada Lovelace Day.
File sharing in the United Kingdom relates to the distribution of digital media in that country. In 2010, there were over 18.3 million households connected to the Internet in the United Kingdom, with 63% of these having a broadband connection. There are also many public Internet access points such as public libraries and Internet cafes.
Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) is a voluntary grassroots organisation that campaigns against Britain's terrorism laws, including detention without charge or trial, and other laws that have the effect of criminalising political activity. SACC works in solidarity with those communities most affected by the anti-terrorism laws and it has also campaigned on a number of other human rights issues closely related to the 'war on terror'. SACC argues that terrorism laws are unnecessary and unjust and crimes connected with terrorism are better dealt with by ordinary criminal law. Richard Haley, SACC's chair, argues that the British government's international politics adversely influences the administration of justice in Scotland.
Access Now is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 and focused on digital civil rights.
The precise number of websites blocked in the United Kingdom is unknown. Blocking techniques vary from one Internet service provider (ISP) to another with some sites or specific URLs blocked by some ISPs and not others. Websites and services are blocked using a combination of data feeds from private content-control technology companies, government agencies, NGOs, court orders in conjunction with the service administrators who may or may not have the power to unblock, additionally block, appeal or recategorise blocked content.
