Ambitious study published by Swedish EU Presidency

The Swedish Presidency of the EU has produced a study entitled "A Green Knowledge Society" that was made public in September 2009. The study aims to set the scene for the "tipping point in the transition to the knowledge economy" and to help prepare policy making for the "enormous consequences" that this will have for society and interaction between governments and citizens. The report also looks at the ways in which ICT can be used for environmental protection. Key issues for the digital civil rights domain include creativity and infrastructure.

As regards creativity the report underlines the changes in today's situation: "Some interviewees pointed to the need for Europe to move away from a 'permission to innovate' culture. For instance, one of the few examples of European innovation is the file sharing service Pirate Bay, which challenges current intellectual property rules. Rather than attempt to stymie this innovation, we need a more thoughtful response and to rethink rules around protection of intellectual property rights so that they are fit for a digital economy. Member State governments currently retain orthodox views about protection of intellectual property but we may need to embrace radical solutions if innovation and creativity is being held back (Boldrin and Levine, 2008)."

Policy goals for infrastructure development are "a new regulatory regime based on more effective ex ante regulation across all ICT layers", open source software and open standards for ICT infrastructure and public procurement, strong Internet governance participation and ensuring that next generation infrastructure can be built in a competitive market. Policy actions include common enforceable regulation with service legal agreements for ISPs and portal providers, harmonised spectrum policy and "vigorously" deploying competition law with accelerated processes.

Full report - A Green Knowledge Society - An ICT policy agenda to 2015 for Europe's future knowledge society - A study for the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, -Government Offices of Sweden (09.2009) http://www.se2009.eu/polopoly_fs/1.14425!menu/standard/file/A%20green%

Executive summary

http://www.se2009.eu/polopoly_fs/1.12580!menu/standard/file/Revision03...

http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.18/sweden-green-itc