The Migration Advisory Committee has published its report on further changes to the criteria for Tier 1, in the face of the changing economic climate. The report can be read here.

The NCA is happy to draw members’ attention to the media activity surrounding the Save our Sound UK campaign, which believes that Ofcom’s proposal to sell off a number of ultra-high frequency radio channels following the digital switch over will threaten the future of events which use radio microphones. NCA Director, Louise de Winter’s letter regarding the campaign was published in The Times this week, following the newspaper’s publication of a letter from Matthew Conway, of Ofcom, itself a response to a joint letter from organisations within the sector.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published a digest of the bill, which was announced during the Queen’s speech last week. The bill outlines a number of proposals which may have an impact on the arts sector. There has been much publicity about the online file-sharing measure, in which internet users may be disconnected following 3 counts of illegal file-sharing. The bill also aims to modernise and facilitate the copyright system, support the plurality of regional and local news, and extend public lending rights to include digital material such as audio and e-books, providing reward to artists and producers when material is lent out from public libraries.

NCA has joined forces with 20 other organisations representing the British Entertainment Industry to launch the Save our Sound UK campaign, asking the Government to act to safeguard the future of any events which use radio microphones. These events (live music, theatre, film and TV production, sports events, concerts and conferences, to name a few) became threatened when Ofcom announced its plans to sell the ultra-high radio frequency channels 31-37 and 61-69 which will be cleared out by the digital switchover. After these channels have been auctioned off by the Government, they will become illegal to use.

After all night negotiations, the European Parliament and Council have reached a compromise on file-sharing, stating that users in all 27 EU states would be subject to a "fair and impartial procedure" before being disconnected. The new rules represent a compromise between those who seek more protection for consumers and those who continue to argue that copyright law is being disregarded by many computer users.