Myles Jackman, Pandora Blake to Speak at ORGCon Next Week

LONDON — ORGCon, the U.K.’s largest conference on internet regulation and civil liberties, returns next week for its fifth year and will include a session that offers discussion on the enforcement of the Digital Economy Act, the statute that provides a new obligation for websites hosting adult content to verify the age of visitors.

The two-day event, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 4-5, in London, is organized by the nonprofit Open Rights Group and focuses on the digital threats consumers and businesses are facing.

The session on age verification in adult entertainment, slated for Saturday, Nov. 4 at 10:15 a.m., is titled, “What’s Your Porn Identity.” Journalist Wendy Grossman will chair a discussion between Myles Jackman, a London-based industry attorney and Open Rights Group's legal director, and Pandora Blake, a feminist porn producer, on the impact of the Digital Economy Act on privacy and free speech.

With the new law, the age-verification regulator — which hasn't been named yet, though the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is considered the top contender — will have the power to fine noncomplying porn sites up to £250,000, or up to five percent of their revenue.

The regulator also will be able to order ISPs to block websites that fail to comply and order other providers, including payment processors and ad networks, to cut off services that effectively will deprive site owners of revenue.

Pam Cowburn of the Open Rights Group told XBIZ that other key topics besides the Digital Economy Act will be discussed at the conference, including killer robots and online abuse to surveillance, extremism and the impact of Brexit on digital rights.

Besides Jackman and Blake, other speakers include Mike Butcher, Graham Linehan, Caroline Criado-Perez, Helen Lewis, Tracy King, Noel Sharkey, Nanjira Sambuli, Nighat Dad and Jamie Bartlett, among others.

Open Rights Group’s ORGCon will take place Saturday, Nov. 4, from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. at Friends House in London. The second day of the conference on Sunday, Nov. 5, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., will take place at the Theatre Delicatessen Deli Studios in London. For more information and to book tickets to ORGCon, click here.