If you’re in the UK, do us all a favour right now and stop whatever the hell your doing and pay some attention to this. Most likely, if you’re reading this, what you’re doing is online and after Tuesday it could be drastically limited or eliminated. You could in fact find yourself without an internet connection. Join us and the Open Rights Group and others in helping defeat the Digital Economy Bill, which is popular among no one save for overseas entertainment industry lobbyists. The Digital Economy Bill being pushed forward by Peter Mandelson is bad for real people and the real economy.
Open Rights Group: “On Tuesday, the Digital Economy Bill, with all its myriad problems, will be voted on its second reading – after the election has been declared. It will then be pushed through ‘wash-up’ – and become law without full scrutiny. There are only a few days left. Write to your MP, write again if you have already.”
Lee Griffith has a great post at Liberal Conspiracy on the Digital Economy Bill. While well worth the read for the what-if scenareo alone, it’s also got some solid tips on what to include when you write your MP about this disasterous policy shift toward totalitarianism.
Imagine a world in which you’re home repairs could land you in court because it was robbing handy workers of their right to redo your kitchen, or one in which Top Shop could sue you for making your own jumper. The Digital Economy Bill assumes criminality of anyone who is online and leaves it up to them to prove their innocence.
From Lee:
For those that are writing to your MPs, specifically point them to the areas of the bill that are problematic (and do so in your own words, it has more impact!):
If you dislike the idea of OFCOM becoming a UK internet regulation body of any “editorially controlled” content “service” – see Clause 1
If you dislike vague law that would allow unscrupulous ministers to restrict your internet access without warning after ZERO warnings, if they so chose – see Clause 6
If you dislike the idea of being cut off from your internet because someone in your house/university/workplace allegedly broke the law – see Clauses 10 and 11.
If you a) Don’t want the BPI to draft law for us or b) don’t want websites blocked by ISPs because the ISPs are blackmailed with threats of legal costs if they don’t block access to the site – see Clause 18
If you don’t want the government to have the power to take ownership of uk domain names on a vague concept of “fairness” – see Clause 19
If you dislike leaving the door open to require online games to be regulated – see Clause 41
If you’re concerned about new law being made (re: Orphan Works) that is weakened by old law not being enforced – see Clause 43
Join the Libel Reform Campaign and come to the House of Commons for a mass lobby meeting at 2pm Tuesday 23rd March. We will be joined by high profile supporters of the campaign at what will be our last chance to get commitment for libel law reform from politicians and policy makers before the election is called. Read the rest of this entry…
Get them on the record before they trash your digital media rights
Reposting from Cory Doctorow’s post here, and 38 Degrees post here. Ah, the echo chamber…
The House of Lords failed to take reasonable action on the threat posed by the Digital Economy Bill and let it slide back into the House of Commons for final amendments and approval. Of the three main parties, it seems only the Liberal Democrats have started coming around to seing how bad this is for UK’s citizens and its actual real-world digital economy. They at least want to retract the bad bit they’d originally submitted, but that would still leave an incredibly flawed law.
Cory says, “38 Degrees is asking Britons to write to their MPs and ask them to call for a full debate on this law before they vote on it. It seems stupid that we’d have to ask our elected reps to actually give sweeping proposals consideration before turning them into law, but there you have it. No matter what side you come down on for the Digital Economy Bill, is there anyone who wants law to be made without debate.” Read the rest of this entry…
The Liberal Democrats seemed determined in the UK to outdo Peter Mandelson in draconian efforts to disable the web via the Digitial Economy Bill, which seems aimed at doing anything but advancing a truely digital economy. Read the rest of this entry…
The Committee to Protect Bloggers has signed on to the Libel Reform Campaign in England, which calls on drastic changes to the law. “Freedom to criticise and question, in strong terms and without malice, is the cornerstone of argument and debate, whether in scholarly journals, on websites, in newspapers or elsewhere. Our current libel laws inhibit debate and stifle free expression. They discourage writers from tackling important subjects and thereby deny us the right to read about them.”
Tracey Brown, Managing Director, Sense About Science: “We have to show politicians that small tinkering with the libel laws won’t do – we need a real public interest defence. Otherwise, there will be more cases like those against Simon Singh and Peter Wilmshurst, and the libel laws will continue to be the tools of well-funded bullies who want to silence criticism.”
If you are reading this in the UK please follow the link below and sign this petition to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown to cancel the Digital Economy bill provisions that would¬† require internet service providers to unplug any household’s internet connection should anyone living there be accused (not convicted) of three acts of copyright infringement. Ridiculousness has a new definition and that is the logic put forth by the bill’s founder, Business Secretary and lead idontgetit Peter Mandelson.
“This petition has been set up in response to the Government‚Äôs proposal to cut off internet access to those who are caught illegally downloading copyrighted files. We think this has one fundamental flaw, as illegal filesharers will simply hack into other peoples WiFi networks to do their dirty work. This will result in innocent people being disconnected from the internet. What’s more, such a punishment should be dealt with in the proper way, in a court of law. This guilty until proven innocent approach violates basic human rights.”
