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<h2 class="posttitle"> Greens Call For ‘Social Contract For Digital
Age’; Lessig Calls US Hopeless On Copyright Reform </h2>
<small>Published on 22 October 2012 @ 10:04 pm</small>
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<p>Intellectual Property Watch</p>
<p>By Monika Ermert for <em>Intellectual Property Watch</em></p>
<p>BERLIN–The United States is hopeless when it comes to a copyright
reform for the internet, US Law Professor Lawrence Lessig told the
German Green Party’s congress on internet politics on Saturday.
Europe, Lessig said, could take the lead with regard to that
reform, which is needed but blocked in the US by vested interests.
</p>
<p>The US copyright lobby’s only defeat – the withdrawal of the Stop
Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – did not mean there was a broader
turnaround, he said. Lessig asked for a simpler, more focussed and
efficient copyright that avoids mixing private and professional
use, remix and copies under an ever-stricter regime. The call was
welcomed at the conference that the Green Party used to discuss
what it called a social contract for the digital age. </p>
<p>“A social contract for the digital age is overdue,” said Green
Party Chair Renate Kuenast, who will also lead the party in the
upcoming German election next year. </p>
<p>Needed elements are: internet access as the new universal
service, better access to the political process and a rejuvenation
of democracy, and the protection of fundamental rights in the
digital world, Kuenast said. Eighteen workshops discussed what
critics called regulation for the net – from more effective data
protection to potential inclusion of digital rights in the German
constitution. </p>
<p>Former State Department official Ben Scott called for much more
forward-looking policy and said he sees Berlin as more of a source
for the change than Brussels and the European Union, as Brussels
is where “good ideas go to die.”</p>
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