Tribunal jobs, police charge file-sharer

Fancy a new (part-time) job?

The Judicial Appointments Commission has announced that it will be starting selection exercises in October for a Fee Paid Deputy Chair for the Copyright Tribunal and an Appointed Person for the Trade Marks 'Tribunal'.

File-sharing supremo charged

The Guardian reports that Alan Ellis, the founder and administrator of the 'Oink' file-sharing network has been charged with conspiracy to defraud by Cleveland (in the UK, not Ohio) Police. Four people who uploaded on to the site have been charged with copyright infringement. The site did not actually make the music available, but was instead a 'torrent tracker', which told users (who numbered 200,000) which other users had what material to download. The site was free, with revenue only coming from occasional donations.

Use Oink? Me? Never!

The IPKat is intrigued by the nature of the charge against Mr Ellis. Is this a tacit admission that secondary infringement wouldn't work here, or is there some difference in possible sentence that the IPKat isn't aware of? And who is the conspiracy between - the users of the site and Mr Ellis, or is it a bit more intimate?

Ferdinand gutted to miss out on strategic IP role

The IPKat has discovered that the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) has announced the appointment of Peter Holland as its new Director of International Policy. According to a press release yesterday, Peter has already started work. His previous position, which presumably qualified him for his role with the UK-IPO, was with the Cabinet Office where he was Head of the Afghanistan Strategy Team.

Right: Rio Ferdinand is reported to be "gutted" at his failure to be given a top IP job (see IPKat comment below)

UK-IPO Chief Executive Ian Fletcher has said:

"Peter will add a breadth of talent and experience to the UK-IPO. It is essential that in our policy work we make full use of the resources and talents of the FCO. Peter is joining the office at an exciting time as we prepare help UK companies to compete in the global economy".

The IPKat wishes Mr Holland luck but notes that, in making this appointment, the government is followings its recent pattern (see here, here and here) of placing intellectual property issues in the hands of people with little or no apparent knowledge or experience in the field. This must come as a desperate disappointment to Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, who has substantial international experience and who must have been hoping for a top position in IP after failing to gain appointment as captain of the England football team today.

Merpel, noting the appointee's role as Head of the Afghanistan Strategy Team, wonders whether his brief is to executive a staged withdrawal of civil servants from the hostile and mountainous terrain of South Wales, where a small British contingent has been holed up in Concept House, terrorised by a marauding flock of killer sheep ...

Rio Ferdinand is not the only person disappointed. Some other Peter Hollands who failed to get the job can be found here, here and here