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.”

Find out here what you can do right now:

What You Can Do Now

We have two more days to mobilise online opposition to the Digital Economy Bill. Here’s what you can do:

Send messages of opposition to your MP and candidates:

Find your MP and candidates with

http://tweetminster.co.uk/

Tweet the Ministers and shadows:

@stephenctimms Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010 #Labour

@Jeremy_Hunt Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010 #Conservatives

@DonFosterMP Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010 #LibDems

Tweet the PM and parties:

@UKLabour Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010 #Labour

@DowningStreet Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010 #Labour

@Conservatives Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010

@libdems Will you oppose the #DEBill being pushed through without debate and full scrutiny? #GE2010

And offer support to:

@tom_watson Thank you for your help on the #DEBill #GE2010

@ericjoyce Thank you for your help on the #DEBill #GE2010

@AVMitchellMP Thank you for your help on the #DEBill #GE2010

@BridgetFox Thank you for your help on the #DEBill #GE2010

@JulianHuppert Thank you for your help on the #DEBill #GE2010

And also

Write to your MP
Write to your local paper’s Letters Page

Suggest a question for the Prime Ministerial debates

Useful Links

Why you should care about the Digital Economy Bill
Briefing for media and politicians

Source: Open Rights Group

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!):

1. If you dislike the idea of OFCOM becoming a UK internet regulation body of any “editorially controlled” content “service” – see Clause 1
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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
6. If you dislike leaving the door open to require online games to be regulated – see Clause 41
7. If you’re concerned about new law being made (re: Orphan Works) that is weakened by old law not being enforced – see Clause 43

]]> http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2010/03/18/bill-would-fail-offline/feed/ 1 http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2010/03/17/mass-lobby/ http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2010/03/17/mass-lobby/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:07:22 +0000 Andrew Ford Lyons http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/?p=1869 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.

What is a mass lobby?
A mass lobby is when a large number of people go to Parliament to raise the same concern each with their own MP at the same time. You have a right to go to the House to meet your MP in the heart of Parliament and they are usually keen to meet you if they are free — especially with an election so soon.

What do I need to do?
1. Find out who your MP is and their contact details here: www.theyworkforyou.com.

2. Email them or write to them:

• Identify yourself as a constituent – give your postal address
• Tell your MP: I will be coming to the House of Commons on Tuesday 23rd March at 2 pm for a meeting on libel law reform in Committee Room 15. I would like to meet you at that meeting or afterwards in the Central Lobby between 3 pm and 4 pm to find out where you and your party stand.

3) Turn up on the day

What will happen on the day?
Come to the Cromwell Green entrance to the Houses of Parliament. You will have to allow about 20 minutes to pass through security and to get to Committee Room 15 for 2 pm. We will hear from high profile Champions of the campaign on why the political parties need to commit to reform libel laws which are unjust, against the public interest and an international menace and, we hope, from spokespeople for the parties on justice matters. Your MP may be there if you wrote to them. We can ask them en masse what they are doing to get a manifesto commitment for libel law reform or you can ask them personally.

Usually your MP will reply to your email agreeing to meet you in central lobby or apologising for not being around (you should ask to meet their researcher in that case).

Please let us know if you can come and if your MP agrees to meet you. The House sits from 2 pm until 10 pm on Tuesday. If you can only come in the evening please let us know – if there is enough demand we will organise something then as well.

The election in the UK is expected to be on Thursday 6th May so Parliament will rise very soon. This is our only chance for a mass lobby to change these archaic, restrictive laws.

— Sile and Mike

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.”

38 Degrees says, “Peter Mandelson is rushing to force the Digital Economy Bill into law before the General Election. The draconian law is opposed by industry experts, internet service providers (like TalkTalk and BT), web giants including Google, Yahoo and Ebay and even the British Library. Despite all this opposition, the Government is trying to rush it through quietly just before the election without proper debate – without a chance for us to voice our opposition. Email your MP now and urge them to stop the government rushing this law through.

There’s plenty to oppose in the Digital Economy Bill, it gives the government the ability to disconnect millions. Schools, libraries and businesses could see their connection cut if their pupils, readers of customers infringe any copyright. But one group likes it, the music industry. In a leaked memo a few days ago they admitted the only way to get the bill through would be to rush it through without a real parliamentary debate. Let’s stop that happening.

Write to your MP now urging them to stop the Government rushing the bill through. It’ll take you less than 2 minutes. Just enter your postcode above (so we can find your MP) and click “participate” to get started.”

I say: If you want to keep free wi-fi available in your cities and towns, don’t like the idea of content being blocked because of out-of-date copyright restrictions, don’t like the idea of millions of people being judged guilty of crimes until they prove theirselves innocent and don’t want to see Hollywood stymie innovation and technological advancement simply to maintain inflated prices on DVDs in Zone 2, then its in your best interest to see this bill killed. It’s bad for the economy, free speech and you.

<—- Possible template to base your letter to your MP on —->

Use www.writetothem.com for speedy delivery
You can also contact them through 38 Degrees

Dear [Insert MP Name]

I’m writing to you today because I’m very worried that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate.

The law is controversial and contains many measures that concern me. The controversial Bill deserves proper scrutiny so please don’t let the government rush it through. Many people think it will damage schools and businesses as well as innocent people who rely on the internet because it will allow the Government to disconnect people it suspects of copyright infringement.

Industry experts, internet service providers and huge internet companies like Google and Yahoo are all opposing the bill – yet the Government seems intent on forcing it through without a real debate.

As a constituent I am writing to you today to ask you to do all you can to ensure the Government doesn’t just rush the bill through and deny us our democratic right to scrutiny and debate.

[Insert your Name]

As Cory Doctorow points out at BoingBoing today, the revised bill which rejected by the House of Lords yesterday could hamper access to Youtube in the UK. It would also now ban so-called “web lockers” which are detested by the entertainment industry because it can’t see what you’re holding in many of these online tools.

This is just the latest in Parliamentary attempts to make a bad bill worse. The Joint Select Committee on Human Rights has joined a growing chorus of worry about passage of this bill in its current form, but it’s looking more likely that it would either range from useless to illegally obtrusive in any form. As the Open Rights Group notes, it’s “a massive imbalance of power in favour of large copyright holding companies.”

Both these turns for the worse were brought forward by the Liberal Democrats, who seem eager to shed their reputation in support of actual liberty. The bill, which already threatens to criminalise thousands of internet users upon passage also threatens the future of free Wifi access, thus taking the internet back from those at the lower end of the economic scale.

If the House of Lords didn’t like Mandelson’s potentially illegal three-strikes suggestion, they should really be displeased with what comes back to them for the next round of debates. The addition by the LibDems comes after they and the Tories voted out Clause 17 from the bill which would have allowed the government to make changes to copyright law for new media without consulting parliament. Their replacement wording does even more damage, though.

There is no effective legislation that can truly regulate file sharing or most uses of the web, and any attempt to introduce any will have to snare the innocent along with the guilty.¬† Furtermore, there’s no need to. Existing laws cover what constitutes fair use and personal property. If these are growing out of date, then perhaps it is those laws that should change or be scrapped.

The Liberal Democrats are joining Tories and Labour in attempting to push through anti-internet laws that will inhibit free expression, creativity and stifle innovation in the UK and abroad through a series of guilty-until-proven-innocent initiatives that will make passage of the Digital Economy Bill a human rights crime.

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.”

You can read and sign the petition here.

“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.”

Sign the petition!

The Associated Press reported that the “case involving lawmaker Paul Farrelly had threatened the rights of journalists to report anything debated in Parliament. British law allows the media to report any comments made in Parliament without fear of running afoul of Britain’s often draconian privacy and libel laws.”

Enter the inherent anarchy and chaos of the web to the rescue. Endless tweets and roughly 490 blog posts later and the gag order instigated by solicitors Carter-Ruck had been beaten to a pulp.

“The Trafigura business should make us feel good today. A not inconsiderable blow was struck for free speech, and it couldn‚Äôt have happened without the internet, or more precisely without social media networking.” ‚Äî THE PEOPLE‚ÄôS REPUBLIC OF MORTIMER

The Blog Chickyog.net published the following, along with many other blogs:

“It seems the Guardian has been prevented from publishing this written parliamentary question tabled by Paul Farelly MP‚Ķ”

61 N Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura.

“You can download your own copy of the Minton report from Wikileaks.”

It appears that some or all of these slops were disposed of at waste sites in and around Abidjan, Ivory Coast approximately in August 2006. This is alleged to have caused, or in part contributed to, a high incidence of health problems being reported, including nausea, breathing difficulties, vomiting, diarrhea.

“Read section 3 in particular ‚Äì ‚ÄòHealth and Environmental impacts‚Äô ‚Äì all kinds of horrible stuff were involved.”

The Trafigura oil company had become one of the most blogged about items yesterday thanks to the attempted censorship, putting the issue where it belongs, in the public domain. The gag order was subsequently lifted, allowing the likes of the BBC, Guardian, etc. to report what had been released online.

“Our coalition comprises organisations, charities and people who believe disconnection from the internet would mean that people like us would be unable to engage in banking, socialising, campaigning, home admin and many other activities that are increasingly moving online. Worse, disconnection would restrict our long standing right of freedom of expression just at the time when we all need to be able to critique and engage more than ever.”

– Sign the petition

]]> http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2009/09/15/join-the-open-rights-group-to-stop-internet-disconnection-in-the-uk/feed/ 0 http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2009/05/08/uks-plan-to-monitor-internet/ http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2009/05/08/uks-plan-to-monitor-internet/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 12:44:14 +0000 Victor Ngeny http://committeetoprotectbloggers.org/2009/05/08/uks-plan-to-monitor-internet/ As if all the censorship and monitoring we have in the world is not enough we now have United Kingdom’s plan to monitor internet communication between users in the country.¬† UK’s Home secretary has called for implementation of a plan to monitor and record internet contact between users there.

The new system would track emails, calls and internet use yet the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith says there will be no government database to store these logs. we wonder what they’ll be using

Under the plan communication providers would be compelled to track and record internet contact between users, while the Home Secretary says that they’ll be no recording of content only recording of who speaks to who, we are concerned with the potential abuse of a service like this.¬† What will stop the government from recording content after all just knowing that two people spoke is pretty much useless while recording what they said¬† is more important.

Already the plan has run into criticism from the opposition with various individuals focusing on the inportance of privacy, which to us here at CPB is an inalienable right.

We have only one word for the UK Home Secretary, “STOP”