Piracy, copyright and free speech are the key issues reflected in ‘Internet Heroes and Villians award nominations for this year’s ISPAs awards.
The awards, presented by the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK), look to name (and shame) figures that played a key role in shaping the internet industry this year.
Previous years have seen the Hero Winners include the IWF for their work on combating child sex abuse content online, and last year, Tom Watson for leading the opposition in the fight against the Digital Economy Bill.
The controversial Villain award was last year given to Lord Mandelson with the previous year going to the Australian Government and Stephen Conroy for pushing for network level blocking despite national and international opposition.
The ISPA Council will select an individual or organisation in recognition of their achievements for the Internet and the Internet industry.
The Internet Hero category is awarded to an individual or organisation in recognition of their achievements for the Internet and the Internet industry. In 2010 it was won by Tom Watson MP and all those who showed up to vote against the Digital Economy Bill.
‘Internet Hero’ Finalists
• Rory Stewart MP – For his trailblazing efforts to bring broadband to his rural constituency of Penrith and the Borders
• Twitter – For its role in helping people communicate during the Arab spring
• Judge Colin Birss QC – For his considered and damning judgement on the ACS Law that it was “chaotic and lamentable”’
• The Australian Internet Industry Association – For taking the lead and launching a voluntary industry code on infected machines in Australia
• Prof. Ian Hargreaves – For authoring a review that makes recommendations on how IP can be made fitter for the digital
The Internet Villain category is a light-hearted award presented to an individual or organisation in recognition of their achievements in hindering the industry. In 2010 it was won by Lord Mandelson for ignoring principles of better regulation to amend an open consultation following lobbying from an interest group.
‘Internet Villian’ Finalists
• ACS Law/Andrew Crossley – For demanding payments from members of the public on behalf of certain rights holders with poor evidence which brought the “legal profession into disrepute”, and for failing to secure the data of those accused
• New Zealand Commerce Minister Simon Power – For being the latest country to put in to law a three strikes rule enabling the disconnection or prosecution of the owner of an IP address alleged to have infringed copyright three times
• Commissioner Barnier – For the lack of transparency and cooperation with industry and other commissioners on the IPR enforcement and IPR strategy as a whole
• Tayfun Acarer, the chairman of the Turkish Information and Communications Technologies Authority – For looking to impose mandatory filtering on all ISP connections in Turkey against “international norms”
For more information go to www.ispaawards.org.uk
