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Mandelson's law pasted by web giants

Too much power to the government
Thu Dec 03 2009, 10:35

LORD PETER Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill has been slammed by some of the biggest names on the web.

What has miffed the likes of Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Ebay is a clause which gives the government "unprecedented and sweeping powers" to amend copyright laws as it likes.

In a letter to Mandy they have asked him to cut Clause 17 from the bill. Mandelson thinks that the clause will "future-proof online copyright laws" because it means a bureaucrat can change the law on the fly.

However Google and others fear the law could be used to introduce additional technical measures or increase monitoring of user data even where no illegal practice has taken place.

They warn that this would discourage innovation and impose unnecessary costs.

According to the Beeb, Clause 17 is all a sop to Rupert Murdoch and his ilk because it could be used to tweak laws so that search engines could not publish summaries of news stories in their results.

However a spokesman for the Government said that business will not wake up one morning to a world in which government has taken extensive digital powers.

We guess they plan to do it slowly then. µ

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Comments
wtf

great, theyre going to give mandy the power to change laws as he sees fit...this is a man who had to leave parliament twice for being as bent as a six bob note.

posted by : john devoy, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
possession is 9/10 of the law

And I think the law should be decided by judiciary and not politicians. I doubt the latter would work very well considering Mr Blair's performance and Mr Mugabes come to that.

posted by : O'Brien, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
real bloody mentalists

labour = belligerent
completely blatantly ignoring the views of the British public time and time again so they can abuse power.

does the monarch not have a duty to intervene and stop this tyranny?

maybe they are in on it too

posted by : aunty momma, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Mandelson

Someone should see if its possible to cube Lord Mandelsons head with a milling machine...

posted by : conservative, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Role of government

Chomsky: The primary role of government is to protect property from the majority.

Mandelson: the primary role of government is to protect intellectual property from the majority.

posted by : Alan, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
very eenteresting...

Labour classed themselves as socialist so this means 'for the people'

now they put profits before people, what classification would that be?
parasitic? greedy? self-serving?

also, can i be a minister? i havent been elected but i could do with lots of cash and freebie handouts from big businessmen.

...after you with the jug of human blood

posted by : rap 'tou, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
UK government....

is fast becoming a law unto itself...they think if they put enough PR spin on anything they can just push it through regardless of public opinion....was this part of their election manifesto...No...so in which way do they claim to be representing the wishes of the people in this matter? I thought this country was meant to be a democracy.
I'll be voting for UKIP next time...at least they are committed to more public involvement through referendums.

posted by : techno, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Rouge?

Carl, are you trying to imply Mr Mandelson is a Francophilic pinko commie?

However rouge we get we will never be quite as rouge as the Russians.

google et al sound like they are shirking their responsibilities while Mandelson seems to be embracing digital rights and maybe intelligence gathering and in-security.

You can see his point though, the digital economy needs cash flow to grow at this point in history.

Even if we perfect robotic production and renewable energy and CAD and each citizen of the new world order has so much cash we dont know what to do with it all, we would still need a way of making sense of what we do.

Cash is democracy, payment is voting. But even then why pay if you can get it for free? Until humanity learns the value of paying for something the tragedy of the commons can cause mayhem and governments job is to overcome that tragedy and make us do the right thing. After they have paid up their expenses tab of course.

*Sigh* They got me a long time ago.

posted by : O'Brien, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Stake through the heart...

...and stuff with garlic, just to make sure.

posted by : DS, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
Britain could become a rouge State

Mandelson's amendments to Copyright Law could make Britain a rouge State as amendments to any ‘Copyright Material could seriously jeopardize the Intellectual Rights of the developer. Copyright Protected material is a Global Law which most all counties have to abide by if Britain seeks to alter this then the formula be it music or otherwise is at serious risk.

Copyright Law is extremely important as it is used to secure the Intellectual Right over such things as New Drugs, New Music, inventive plans as designs, be it a dress a car a house a boat a plane whatever.

Copyright must be carried out swiftly as Copyright is the fastest system (currently legal) whereas Patent Protection can often take years other than as described here: http://carl-agpcuk.livejournal.com/
Which is my own ‘Copyright Protected’ formulated system called I.C.C.O., which could replace both, outdated slow Patent Protection and Copyright Laws with added security.

Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk

posted by : Carl Barron, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
somebody save us!

he is the devil incarnate

he needs to be put into a space prison like the 3 bad guys off superman 2 and cast away for the good of mankind

posted by : burger shoot, 03 December 2009 Complain about this comment
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