Since about a year ago, the UK government's approach to software development has been part of a "Creative Industries" topic. This effort is shared between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).

Today (Thursday 16 June), a discussion forum was announced by the minister for creative industries. You can read Rufus Pollock's event report and follow links from http://www.okfn.org/drn/node/58

It is important that free software supporters and developers get involved in the discussion. The "Creative Industries IP Forum" - which is being invited to advise the government - is almost entirely protectionist. Several members campaign for increased copyright and Digital Restriction Management (DRM). Civil society seems only represented by the Consumer Association, which itself makes a lot of money from publishing copyrighted magazines (the "Which?" series), if I remember correctly.

The panel at today's event was mainly protectionist (rather than the more permissive approach of free software) but Rufus wrote to the creative-friends list:

The main item is good news: [copyright] term extensions were *not* mentioned at all and don't seem to be on the agenda for /the present/.

Please pass this report on and encourage people to tell the government about the importance of a permissive approach to the UK's culture, whether by encouraging native companies (instead of UK arms of internationals), helping to preserve our native languages, or any of the other benefits. Register for the discussion on the DCMS site as detailed on http://www.culture.gov.uk/creative_industries/discussionforum.htm