More depressing news from Russia:
Russia’s interior minister is demanding the elimination of anonymity on the Internet for residents of former Soviet territories.
“Violators of the law should stop abusing the openness of the Commonwealth of Intependent States’ borders,” Rashid Nurgaliev was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying Thursday.
“They should not hide in the territories where the legislation of the states pursuing them is not valid,” he said at the CIS Interior Ministries meeting in Yalta.
According to Nurgaliyev, law-enforcement agencies with the interested ministries and the business community should monitor online registration constantly to minimize anonymity.
Russian police chief seeks to abolish anonymity in the Internet / MosNews.com
And from the UK:
Member of parliament Alan Johnson, the AGM’s guest keynote speaker, is the current U.K. secretary of state for health. He has also been tipped as a possible prime minister, should Gordon Brown vacate the position.
Johnson has had extensive dealings with the music industry during his stint as secretary of state for education and skills in 2006, and his ministerial post at the department of trade and industry in 1999.
He noted the uncertainty generated by the Internet, which has made music more accessible to consumers but also vulnerable to piracy.
“Music is better now in terms of variety and choice; music is everywhere because of the Internet,” he says, comparing today’s business with his youthful days in the 1960s, when music media was restricted to the public broadcaster BBC and pirate radio.
“But that has caused you so many problems because governments and regulators have not kept pace,” he declared.
Johnson noted that deregulation of banks in previous years had been blamed for that sector’s more recent problems, and so did not recommend a lack of regulation surrounding the activities of the music industry.
