Correspondence with representatives of the creative industry, Aug 08-09

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Good afternoon. May I please be provided with the following?

Correspondence between BIS and representatives of the creative industry relating to:
- copyright (term, reform, enforcement, policy, infringement, piracy, economy, importance, law), or
- a Memorandum of Understanding, or
- the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry/British Phonographic Industry), or
- UK Music, or
- legislative consultation from 16th June 2009,

All from 01/08/2008 to 01/09/2009, with minutes please.

Much appreciated!
Yours faithfully,
Philippe Bradley

Gettins Tim \(IE\), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Ref No: FOI 10/2227

Friday 12 November 2010

Dear Mr Bradley

Thank you for your email of 15 October 2010 where you requested
information about correspondence between BIS and representatives of the
creative industry relating to, inter alia, copyright and legislative
consultation, BPI and UK Music and legislative consultation from 16 June
2009.

I am writing to advise you that, following a search of our paper and
electronic records, I have established that the information you requested
is not held by this Department.

Some of the information in scope of your request is exempt under Section
21 of the FOIA, because the information is accessible to you, as it is
already in the public domain. The responses to the Consultation on P2P
file sharing can be found on the BIS website at

[1]http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/business-....

You might find it helpful to refine your request if there is still
information you particularly wish to obtain; for example, representations
from a particular organisation or institution where a consultation
response has not been published. We would be happy to consider any revised
request.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to me.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Gettins

Tim Gettins, Policy Adviser
Digital Content & Creative Industries
Tel: 020 7215 3787
BIS
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/business-...

Dear Mr Gettins,

Thank you for what must have been a time-consuming search of paper and electronic records. Thank you also for your offer to consider a revised request. I have tried to be more specific with the following description of information sought.

In looking for 'correspondence', the following was meant: letters, emails, telephone conversations (attendance notes / minutes thereof if possible, timings/number if not).

By 'BIS', it was meant: BIS (or DIUS+BERR in the relevant period) staff or ministers/ with relevant responsibilities.

By 'Representatives of the creative industry', may I suggest the following bodies as appropriate examples? Please feel free to exclude those you consider to not be part of this request.

Alliance Against IP Theft
Anti Counterfeiting Group
Anti-Copying in Design
BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited
British Brands Group
British Jewellery and Giftware Federation
British Music Rights
British Screen Advisory Council (BSAC)
British Video Association
Business Software Alliance (BSA)
Cinema Exhibitors Association
Copyright Licensing Agency
Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS)
Design Council
Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association
Entertainment Retailers Association
Featured Artist Coalition
Federation Against Copyright Theft
Federation Against Software Theft (FAST)
Film Distributors Association
Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys
Luther Pendragon
Microsoft
Motion Picture Association
Musictank
Open Rights Group
PPL (London based UK music industry service company)
Premier League
Publishers Licensing Society
Respect for Film
SoundCopyright
The Publishers Association

The request then gave search topics; would it help to provide you with some suggestions as to useful search terms, or do you have your own ideas as to how these can be investigated?

Certainly, where a consultation response has not been published, it might be appropriate to include this in the response, but I am after recorded details of communications, more generally.

I appreciate the work that goes into filling these requests tremendously. Please do let me know if I can be of further assistance. Yours sincerely,

Phil Bradley

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

BIS ref: 10/2471

Dear Mr Bradley,

Thank you for your narrowed request sent to Tim Gettins which was received
on 22 November. Your request has been passed on to the appropriate
official at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to deal
with.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be responded at the latest by 20 December.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the information
rights unit at BIS. Please remember to quote the reference number above in
any future communications.

Best wishes,
Information Rights Unit

Information Rights Unit | Department for Business, Innovation & Skills |
Orchard 3, 1st Floor, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H OET|
[1]www.bis.gov.uk

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) is building a
dynamic and competitive UK economy by creating the conditions for business
success; promoting innovation, enterprise and science; and giving everyone
the skills and opportunities to succeed. To achieve this we will foster
world-class universities and promote an open global economy. BIS -
Investing in our future

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Requests,

I note that you said that this request would be responded to by 20th December 2010. Any update?

I should of course wish you a happy new year!

Phil Bradley

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills's handling of my FOI request 'Correspondence with representatives of the creative industry, Aug 08-09'.

It has been many months since you have failed to deal with the request on time. I appreciate the workloads of FOI officers but the stalling is improper and raises the suspicion that you are deliberately withholding information of key importance to significant ongoing policy deliberations with potentially negative implications for civilians in the UK, the aim being to stifle a properly informed public debate on the matter.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...

Yours faithfully,

Philippe Bradley

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Please acknowledge receipt of previous (unanswered) emails and what complexity has arisen that could explain such a delay. Based on the content of that acknowledgement, I shall evaluate the appropriateness of a complaint to the ICO and/or the Permanent Secretary.

Yours faithfully,

Philippe Bradley

BALCHIN, Patrick,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bradley

Please see attached a letter regarding your FoI cases

Regards

Patrick Balchin

Telecoms and Internet, Information economy

Department of Culture, media and Sport,

2-4 Cockspur Street,

London

Tel : 020 7211 6012

e-mail : [email address]

www.culture.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Balchin,

So far as I know, the FOI Act does not make allowance for keeping IR requesters in the dark for months on end, especially when the only stated reason is departmental reorg tomfoolery.

I note a judgement is still awaited in the first instance judicial review of the Digital Economy Act. To be straightforward, I shall air my suspicion that BIS and DCMS are deliberately withholding evidence showing absence of departmental impartiality when it conducted the Impact Assessment challenged in that case, at least until judgement is entered.

Unless I can be of further assistance (in addition to the refinements to my original query, provided at the request of Mr Gettins, above) in this matter or the other outstanding IRs (listed here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/phil_... ), then I propose to escalate these matters before the end of this week.

Yours sincerely,

Philippe Bradley

BALCHIN, Patrick,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bradley

Please see the attached letter regarding your internal review.

Many thanks

Patrick Balchin

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Balchin,

This draft reply to an internal review relates to a different internal review to the one displayed at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/49.... This may be a technical error, or simply an understadable human error given that my requests share a common topic and line of enquiry (albeit different scope). I'm not sure I was meant to be sent a draft, either.

Yours sincerely,

Phil Bradley

BALCHIN, Patrick,

Dear Mr Bradley

Thank you for your e-mail.

We are trying to move the reply to the correct query. Unfortunately it is difficult as it requires a BIS e-mail address and , after the move to DCMS, we only have DCMS e-mail addresses available to us now. I have asked the team at WDTK to see if they can place the reply with the right query.

Equally, please disregard the draft statement at the beginning of the reply. This was just an oversight in the final editing of the document.

One again please accept my sincere apologies for these unfortunate errors.

Regards

Patrick

show quoted sections

BALCHIN, Patrick,

Dear Mr Bradley
Thank you for the e-mail.

I would be grateful if you could send me an alternative e-mail address, by reply to this request rather than via What Do They Know, so that we can send you the replies to the other outstanding cases. Please note that the as the cases were sent to BIS,the WDTK website requires replies to come from a BIS e-mail address. Unfortunately, after the move to DCMS, our BIS addresses have now been closed and consequently we are unable to send responses directly to FoI requests sent to BIS via "What Do They Know".

My e-mail address is [email address]

I have asked the team at WDTK, to redirect the replies as necessary but have not had a reply yet. It would be easier if I had an alternative e-mail address that I could use to direct the appropriate replies to you and you could place on the WDTK website as appropriate. We will, of course, respect your confidentiality.

Yours sincerely

Patrick Balchin

show quoted sections

BALCHIN, Patrick,

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Bradley

Due to the problems with the routes to the individual requests, and the continuing inablility that I face from placing the approprpriate reply to the appropriate request, please find attached details of three of the four internal reviews to your Freedom of Information requests. The fourth, relating to correspondence between Lord Mandelson and BIS officials, will be issued as soon as we have secured permission from Lord Mandelson for the release of material. Please accept our apologies for this.

Please accept my apologies for this situation. We have tried to find an easier solution than this one that would enable to access the reviews but unfortunately have not been able to do so.

Please let me know if you have any further problems accessing these files. My contact details are attached,

Please note that I have sent a copy of this e-mail to Nicola Humphries at the Information Commissioner's Office.

Yours sincerely

Patrick Balchin

Department of Culture, Media & Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH

0207 211 6012
[email address]

show quoted sections

BALCHIN, Patrick,

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Bradley cc Nicola Humphries, ICO

We have received clearance from Lord Mandelson's office for the release of the attached material relating to you Freedom of Information request. This is attached. Please accept my apologies for the time taken to resolve this case and get a substantive reply to you.

I have sent a copy of this reply to the ICO as requested.

Best regards

Patrick Balchin

show quoted sections

John Cross left an annotation ()

The article links to this request: https://torrentfreak.com/censorship-fail...