UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will put  communications data at the top of his list for  new laws after the May 7 general election. Assuming  he is re-elected, he wants to extend the range of data that would be legally accessible to  the police and intelligence services, on a scale thus far unprecedented.  His proposals, justified on the basis of an increased terror threat,  will also up the ante in terms of the technology companies that will be obligated to comply.  The concern is that Mr Cameron’s implied multi-dimensional data retention requirement will also create an apparatus that, without sufficient safeguards and in the wrong hands, will result in  a vastly disproportionate, over-arching and unacceptable violation of  personal privacy.

Read more: David Cameron’s comms data top list - with new content powers

I was delighted to be a panelist at the annual conference in Brussels of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) on  Wednesday 19 November 2014.

The panel was entitled "What's next for copyright?" and panelists were asked to address European Union copyright policy moving forward into 2015, with a focus on the issue of cross-border availability of content.

As we are now at the beginning of the new year, and in eager anticipation of the European Commission's moves on copyright, the following text  is an edited version of my speech:

Read more: What’s Next For Copyright? My speech at ECTA Regulatory Conference 2014 Copyright Panel

In the 800^th anniversary  year of Magna Carta, what of our free speech rights?

As we begin 2015, let’s remind ourselves that this year is the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta – the Great Charter that first established rights and on which later charters of human rights have been built.  In 2015, we are seeing more and more threats to those hard won rights by various interest groups (corporate and non-corporate) who want to block and take control of our communications systems that have been established over the Internet in the past two decades or so.  It does look like 2015 is going to be critical year for the protection of those rights.

Read more: Network consolidation, counter-terrorism, Sony hack – Internet policy game-changers for 2015?