C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pa la guerre
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Digital Economy Bill is passed into law
THE DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL was passed into law this morning.
Rushed through Parliament over Easter when most MPs were apparently tucking into hot cross buns and religious sermons, the Bill is now the Act, and will come into effect in two months time.
Thought up by Peter Mandelson just days after a holiday with a music industry executive, and largely steered by the British Phonographic Industry, the Digital Economy Bill has gathered opposition like stones gather moss everywhere except, it appears, at the House of Commons.
Opposition from the organisations that will be responsible for policing some of its rules, specifically, the fact that ISPs should send out warning letters to allegedly copyright infringing users, didn't do much to diminish MPs confidence in the Bill.
Under the terms of the Act Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be required to comply with rights-holder requests for user details, and will be expected to act as middlemen, passing on warning letters to their customers suspected of copyright infringement by the big media companies, and ultimately also as enforcers, throttling or disconnecting the Internet access of accused filesharing scofflaws.
Yesterday, while the transition from Bill to Act still hung in the air like the blade of a guillotine, Talk Talk, a fittingly vocal opponent, promised not to bow to its draconian proposals.
Andrew Heaney, executive director of strategy and regulation at Talk Talk, said, "After the election we will resume highlighting the substantial dangers inherent in the proposals and that the hoped for benefits in legitimate sales will not materialise as filesharers will simply switch to other undetectable methods to get content for free."
It is still not clear how ISPs will be expected to trace users via their IP addresses, nor has it been explained who will pay for the costs involved, though we expect that we all will pay.
The issue of who will be held responsible should an accused copyright infringer be found to be an unsecured wireless network, at say a hotel or coffee shop, is still unresolved. And no one is really convinced that the scheme will halt filesharing traffic, or that stopping illegal downloads will increase profits in the increasingly out-of-touch music and film industries.
The telecom company O2 also is concerned about the scope of the Act, and following its assent said that laws are no solution to the problem. Instead, it suggested that media companies should look for new mechanisms for delivering paid content, at a much cheaper price.
"It may sound harsh but that's life in a market economy and that's what happens when a technology revolution takes place", said Felix Geyr, head of O2 Home & Broadband.
"Some people vainly try to prop up the old system - like the luddites who smashed up the mechanical looms during the industrial revolution, while others recognise that change is inevitable and adapt to a new model."
Geyr added that since the music industry had already ‘had its way' it should focus on modernising itself, "Our message to the lobbyists who have been campaigning so hard for this change in the law is simple: you've got what you wanted. Now wake up, smell the coffee, and start really focusing on giving customers what they want."
The Open Rights Group (ORG) executive director Jim Killock was scathing about the way the bill was passed into the law, and is urging UK citizens to vote only for those MPs that actually stood up against it.
"This week, the Digital Economy Bill, with all its myriad problems, was pushed through - after the election was declared. Without full debate and scrutiny, and in the face of huge public opposition," he said.
"Now, the same people that bypassed democracy want your vote. Seems like the Digital Economy Bill is for a generation a sign that politicians are out of touch and unable to understand our values."
The act was passed by 189 votes to 47, meaning that under half off all MPs even bothered to turn up to vote on the contentious issue.
They were too busy kissing babies we assume.
MPs may be out of touch with what their voters want, but according to the UK Pirate Party, the Bill becoming Law was always fated to happen.
"In truth," said Philip Hunt, spokesman for the UK Pirate Party, "the strategy for waiting for a measure such as the DE Bill to be proposed, and then campaigning against it, was always likely to fail in the long term, because even if the bill had failed, the corporate interests behind it would have resurrected the proposals in a different guise." µ
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@AntiMandy
100% agree with you... those politics are sniffing koke all days watch downloaded movies and screw normal people lifes...
They really should have called this Act the:
"OMGWTFBBQ Act 2010"
That is all.
And were soon proved right, as merciless capitalists took the excess value of their labor, while ruining their bodies and health, making money by literally using up the poor in new and more subtle forms of slavery to machinery. I'm not one of those who regard the rural past as idyllic, but the most casual knowledge of the early Industrial Age reveals some real horrors.
So I take the moniker as meaning to resist change that isn't beneficial to workers.
And I think that nearly everyone here is in fact a Luddite politically: if not, you're for an increase in tyranny, of which we've plently already.
Well, that was unexpected..
I am grateful to the above person for their attentions. I must reply that I am quite aware of 'due process', 'democracy', and many related concepts; but thanks anyway :-)
As it goes, I'm against the Bill for what it says, what it does, and how it got passed. I say this even as a musician, composer, PRS member, also programmer, and some-time network admin with a good understanding of the problems of policing such spurious legislation. Had I known about this in advance, I would have joined any and many campaigns against it, as I have with other draconian Bills.
However, some research hasn't turned up a decent expansion of 'FOV' - could you perhaps elucidate?
FVO "love", obviously.
People like *you* let this happen. We warned you, and you didnt listen.
Sir, since you bang on so about the importance of research, perhaps you might like to do some yourself. You could start with "due process", for example.
Here is a supposed "democracy" selling out its citizens to big business interests - and *foreign* big business interests, at that.
But, hey, a tiny minority had it coming. So thats all right then.
"They came for the file-sharers and I said nothing, because I wasnt a file-sharer."
We know the cocaine lifestyle of these media moguls.
Wonder what was fed to Mandy on the yacht, that he had to do urgently pass this bill! This unelected slimy business secretary did not find anything better and worthwhile to do last 2 years when the country is in recession?
Wonder what measures hehas taken to alleviate the suffering of millions.
B*****ds all. This will still not improve CD sales surely.
Yes, you lot should definitely drop your net accounts to the lowest possible and stop buying CD (although I suspect you stopped that a while ago).
And here is a nice link of the people responsible for such travesty:
http://bpiboycott.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/list-of-shame-those-who-voted-for-the-digital-economy-bill-and-worse-those-who-couldnt-be-bothered-to-turn-up/
Time to fight fire with fire and let the government know that we cannot be intimidated. This is not about artists getting £££'s for their creativity (which I wholly support) but stifling people from using/distributing audio/video/published materials in ways that THEY want to but trying to shoot innovation in the head. This is about POWER and CONTROL specifically by big media DISTRIBUTORS such as the MPAA/RIAA companies and media moguls like Rupert Murdock. Why not adapt and make money out of P2P and other distribution methods (it can be done you know)?
My suggestion is that Joe Public adopts technologies like I2P/iMule/Freenet for blogging and P2P so that suddenly the 'net (for Joe Public) becomes opaque to the sort of scanning that Lord Mandelmort is suggesting. The genie is out of the bottle now and cannot be replaced no matter how hard these idiots try.
Well I don't need more proof of non-democracy than this :), and you chaps are screwed big time.
I'm just waiting for the legal suits that will come soon, and then the travesty will really begin.
After that they will slap you with biometric ID cards that can be red at every corner (old technology really) and you won't be able to walk the street normally any more.
Just imagine stores, people or the police for that matter, harassing you on the street for unpaid bills, insurance stuff or tax.
One of my friends is marrying an Englishman this week, and she is not happy to go live there so much anymore. And I thik I'll be canceling my wishes to visit either.
Spiffy, isn't it XD.
Incisive in zine of 1854-present photo hiquals. event reder never seen, from inside combat helicopter as fisrt 8 then 15 then more people are rightfully mowed down just before launching rpg, rocket propelled gernade. HERE:
<object height="385" width="640" <param </param <param </param <param </param <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5rXPrfnU3G0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" height="385" width="640" </embed </object
maybe better hard to pEEper.
drashek no cranee' too notchee'
He's obviously on the take from the BPI and friends. I wonder if he has a nice little hidden swiss bank account?..
Does not really bother me anyway, newsgroups +ssl = stuff in my puter
I hear that in britain BT already started throttling years before this bill, and before people even started sharing, now that I call forward thinking :)
Whilst I commend Mr Geyr's enthusiasm for questioning the Bill, I suggest he do some research on what the Luddites actually did and why.
The looms that they broke were, by the early 1800's, ~150 year old technology that had been accepted as part of progress. The Luddites took umbridge with malevolent employers by hitting them where it hurt commercially. It could be the case that in a night a group would hit two mills, but in going between them would pass a mill run by a perfectly reasonable employer.
They were, arguably, an early form of trade union. They were given the reputation they now have due to the mill owners appealing to their MPs, questions asked in The House, and militia sent to quell those supporting 'General Ludd' (who was actually a drunk from some 40 years earlier, who had smashed a loom in anger and had nothing at all to do with the 'uprising').
One might successfully put forward the notion that the Luddites in this situation are the downloaders fed up with the ways that the media-distribution companies behave, and making a stand against them. However, I doubt many of them would be willing to make such a statement, and (sadly) are just a bunch of freeloaders (freedownloaders?) who want to get away with theft.
So...internet subsriber will be screwed by clueless "the British Pho(r)nographic Industry".. nice! here comes a rich music-middle-man and says bend over..
I think this article would be more effective if you could touch-up Peter Mandelson's picture a bit. Perhaps a small Fuhrer-esque black moustache would be more in line with what he has done here?
Speaking of which, it is interesting that we thought we had defeated Nazism in 1945, only to have it rise again right in the British Parliament.
Who can impose the same stupid laws in several countries at the same time, making representatives vote about things they know nothing about.
The UK Pirate Party will be standing 10 candidates in the General Election; I encourage everyone who is in an area where we are standing to vote pirate, and anyone who cares about these issues to contribute to our campaign funds, whether for this election or for future elections.
This is the same bill where the minister in question thinks that an IP address means Intellectual Property Address.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/08/minister-for-digital.html
MP's are laughable - we're doomed.