Comments on: Digital Economy (#debill) passes, UK ceases to have one

By: Marcus Povey

Marcus Povey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:44:44 +0000

Neither did mine (Andrew Smith)… there is a complete breakdown here: http://www.theyworkforthebpi.com/

By: Brennig

Brennig — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:49:12 +0000

My MP didn’t even bother to vote on the Bill. Who is my MP? Some guy named D. Cameron (Con).

By: Marcus Povey

Marcus Povey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:58:13 +0000

@Gerhard indeed, also in the firing lines are cafe owners and anyone else who has an open wifi.

Rushed lawmaking is bad lawmaking.

By: Marcus Povey

Marcus Povey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:52:52 +0000

Quite!

Also, what if I want to silence opposition? Data released under FOI is copyright HM Government.

What about private companies? Would Trafigura have gone through a costly super injunction when they could have simply requested the government through a switch?

This is bigger than just file sharing, and currently the only safeguard we have is government assurance that they won’t abuse this power, but that only holds water if you trust the government.

There is no constitutional protection, and we all know that power corrupts.

By: Gerhard

Gerhard — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:51:14 +0000

This law will not affect the savvy geek who owns servers all over the place, proxies, VPNs and pretty much rules the internet. This will affect your single mum with 3 kids that have discovered LimeWire or Acquisition, the landlords which have “I don’t give a damn” tenants etc. Do people actually get this?!?

By: Peter B

Peter B — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:23:06 +0000

Now… how do I report my competitors in the creative industry and get their Internet connections disconnected? There’s too much room for abuse.

When you find a free country, let us know.

By: Marcus Povey

Marcus Povey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:21:51 +0000

True, but we shouldn’t by rights be in this situation.

This and other laws proposed illustrate that the government really just don’t understand concepts like liberty or democracy, if they did they wouldn’t even propose such laws for fear of being laughed at (or for fear of their very lives if you understand the original meaning of the USA’s second amendment).

It also proves once again the level of contempt the government has for the citizenry.

As for your comment about the Human rights act, its worth pointing out that one of David Cameron’s pledges should the Conservatives win is to repeal that law and replacing it with a UK equivalent.

This “equivalent” will make human rights *conditional* and of course under government control and with definitions set by the same.

This is legal of course, because the EU stipulates that you only need to make provision for human rights, but doesn’t go into too much detail…

By: Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:18:58 +0000

Part of me is still hoping that it’ll be struck down, together with some of these other nonsense laws that you’ve pointed out, on the grounds that it violates the Human Rights Act in a very real way. That Act was codified into law as part of a wider European initiative to recognise human rights, and as such the Digital Economy Bill can be taken and contested in the European courts. It should be, as quickly as possible.