Spent last weekend in Brussels with colleagues - with Jo (Wilkinson) and Lee (Corner), we were there for the first of our two new Leonardo projects; I took advantage of being there to introduce Pernille Askerud, terific woman from UNESCO Bangkok and just back from working on cultural industries mapping in Bhutan, to Philippe Kern and Jan Runge of KEA, the Brussels-based EU consultancy. We ended up having quite a good chat and, in a rush of enthusiasm, I expounded my theory about free downloading being here to stay. There was an exchange of glances between Philippe and Jan and then they gently told me that they don't agree with me - they think the world is changing and that Governments are increasingly moving towards imposing penalties on those who dare. In fact, they commented that the UK, which has been so ahead of the field on all this and championed free access in the early days, is now being seen, thanks to Mandelson's recent moves, as moving in the opposite direction..."and Anamaria, if the UK is doing it, then what hope for the rest of us......!" Pernille, Lee and I spent the afternoon discussing it and its consequences - whether or not it is worth taking action.......who knows? - and then another nail in the coffin - Murdoch confirming that he is going to charge for downloading any of News International material - not if but when: he apparently is having some technical difficulties at the moment - and he is seriously considering blocking Google and suing the BBC for apparently using some of his material in their news sites................this just gets worse!
For those of us who are signed up members (metaphorically!!) of the Google School of Research, things sound as though they are going to get really tedious!
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