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The Digital Economy Act has nothing to do with UK politicians
NOW THAT THE DRACONIAN Digital Economy Act has been passed into UK law, it seems none of the main political parties want to have much to do with it, even though they were all happy enough to vote it through earlier in April.
The Act, which contains the controversial 'three strikes' policy to cut off the Internet access of suspected illegal downloaders, was high on the agenda today as the UK's three major political parties took part in an online audio debate to discuss issues important to voters.
Climate change secretary Ed Miliband, Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrats' chief of staff, and shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt were questioned on the fairness of the Digital Economy Act, and all did their best to blame each other for it.
Speaking on behalf of the Tories, Hunt came out firmly against the Act, agreeing it was rushed through and pointing to a "light timetable for the last six months" in which it could have been properly debated. He also cited the absence of a proper House of Commons scrutiny stage, allowing a small group of MPs to thoroughly dissect the proposals.
Hunt referred to the most contentious parts of the act - blocking access to certain websites and cutting off the Internet access of those accused of illegal downloading - as areas of significant change that merited further scrutiny.
"I think it was an absolute disgrace," he said. "I think it could have really done with that extra debate."
Some might feel this is an example of the Tories being hypocrites, as it was their support that helped get the bill passed into law. Hunt attempted to justify this by stating they were put in an "invidious position" of either striking down a bill that contained some aspects they supported, such as the video games certification, or letting the whole thing go through.
It was then the Liberal Democrats' turn to distance themselves from the Act. "We pushed to strike out the provisions on piracy and those that let Internet users be cut off," Alexander said. "We'd want to repeal that."
Alexander also played down Hunt's accusations that Lib Dem peers could have blocked the bill during the wash-up, and that the piracy provisions were a Lib Dem amendment.
"They were put forward by [Lib Dem peer Lord] Tim Clement-Jones in an effort to improve a rotten bill," Alexander said.
As Labour was the key instigator of the Act, Miliband was on weaker ground than the other two and apparently decided that the best approach would be to evade the question of fairness altogether. He instead focused on repeating the need for a balance between Internet freedoms and funding for the creativity of the music, video and software industries.
Miliband's only response to the concerns raised by the public and rights groups was that there would be another chance to debate the issues, and that either the Tories or the Lib Dems could have previously blocked the Act.
The online audio debate, which was presented by the Guardian and the grassroots campaign group 38 Degrees, was designed to engender proper debate away from the TV cameras between the three main political parties on the most important issues, as voted for by the people. µ
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@Badvock
"All this will do is discourage bedroom downloaders pulling the odd song"
This isn't entirely true. Geoff Taylor (BPI) has already announce that the BPI will resume volume (bulk) litigation of UK citizens (effective immediately) in an interview with Billboard:
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i33e34f97cdbeee3e393bbf3300f0bb5c
This is something the BPI will continue doing even when the DEA "warning letters" are sent. DEA warning letters and litigation are not mutually exclusive - they will "compliment" each other.
This will cause untold damage to the British economy because most of the favourite illicit downloads are American films and music (just look on "The Pirate Bay"). US law firms are already lining up to start suing British citizens. Families with teenage children (who have already been hit hard by the recession) will be the ones hit hardest.
I estimate around £4 billion a year being siphoned off to the US. This is based on the BPI figures of 7 million British citizens engaged in P2P, and assuming each one is sent a letter saying "Pay us £800 or we'll take you to court".
The article doesn't say the Liberal Democrats did any such thing, so your claims about 'misrepresentation' are absurd piffle.
The only straw I can see you might be grasping at is a reference to 'main political parties'. However, it's entirely subjective which parties that might include. Personally, I do not equate this phrase with the Liberal Democrats, a party with as much likelihood of winning the forthcoming election as any previous election.
But it's understandable that small parties, enthusiasts and novelty runners who make the whole event so colourful and exciting for the rest of us, get so overly passionate and yappy.
Your article is misleading - the Liberal Democrats voted unanimously *AGAINST* the Digital Economy Bill.
Reference:
http://www.libdemvoice.org/the-digital-economy-bill-saints-the-mps-who-voted-against-labours-internet-freedom-clampdown-debill-18757.html
100% of Liberal Democrats voted against it. Please change your article now, it is misleading to the point of misrepresentation.
I love the fact that Jon thinks the pirates will suffer, clearly you know nothing about the bill or how the real pirates work. All this will do is discourage bedroom downloaders pulling the odd song the hardcore pirates have much more sophisticated ways of avoiding detection and this bill will be as meaningless to them as the paper it is written on. Those who will in fact suffer are Free WiFi hotspots (soon to disappear) owners of unsecured wireless connections and those randomly accused by the likes of ACS:Law (go look em up) with private IRC rooms, invite only forums, proxy servers etc etc the pirates will simply carry on regardless. the main ones to suffer?.....all of us in the uk who will see our already inflated bills rise to cover the costs of sending pointlesds letters to little billys mum n dad about his downloading of the latest JLS track. JON examine the issues before making pointless, trite effing comments like yours!
Now more pirates will go to prison where they belong. Oh wait, that's good.
only goes to show that talking to these people is pointless. What is needed is to line them up against a wall and shoot them.
Just like the Criminal Justice Act of 1994, the fuss will die down, it'll remain in place forever and people will just get used to it as a part of daily life.
... now they are trying to diminish the importance of this disaster by playing tennis with each other.
Yep, UK still going down...