Digital disconnect farce: what happens now?
p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- Queen Elizabeth has given the nod to corporate entertainment cartels and their three strikes and you’re off the net bidniz plan, which is now dangerously close to becoming law of the land.
She has given her royal assent to the outgoing Labour Party’s digital economy bill.
“Craven British politicians have allowed themselves to be led by the nose, to put the best light on it, by Peter ‘Mandy’ Mandelson, the unelected head of the department of business, innovation and skills who’s been fronting the three strikes and you’re off the net segment of the so-called digital economy bill”, sais p2pnet yesterday, going on:
“Last night it was passed, voted through after just two hours of ‘debate’ by a mere 40 or so MPs from a total of 646. It got a critical third reading, meaning it’ll get royal assent and become law. It also meant “Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels are being allowed to throw due process into the garbage can …
“Under the DEB’s Three Strikes section, the government will become the de facto taxpayer funded copyright agent for the music and movie studios, and ISPs will be official cartel enforcers, disconnecting from the internet any of their customers designated as ‘repeat’ file sharers by the entertainment industry.”
Alleged transgressors will initially be warned by letters, the first wave of which are “expected at the beginning of 2011″, says the Telegraph, going on >>>
The letter-sending policy will be carried out for a year and then its effectiveness will be reviewed by Ofcom. If the strategy has not reduced illegal filesharing of content online (by at least 70 per cent than the level it was at the start of the 12 months), the then Secretary of State can instruct Ofcom to draw up ‘technical measures’ to be introduced by each ISP. These measures include bandwidth capping and broadband disconnection, and will be presented to Parliament for inspection.
However, “realistically” internet users “will not be affected until at least 2012″, says the story, adding:
“Users who have technical measures enacted against them have two bodies they can appeal to: their ISP or an independent appeals body – which has been mandated to presume innocence in each case. The measure in the Act which allows the Government to block websites that are presumed to be displaying copyrighted material unlawfully, without additional legislation, is to be scrutinised by the new Government.”
Meanwhile …
… as of 6:45 am Pacific, on What Digital Economy Bill? #debill, 5,548 Twitter users had tweeted they don’t recognise the Digital Economy Bill.
- Open Rights Group – Forum
- The Pirate Party UK
- Call your MP
- Did your MP show up at the second reading?
- An Open Letter to Siôn Simon, Pete Wishart, David Lammy, Peter Luff, John Robertson, Stephen Timms
Stay tuned for an updated count …
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
p2pnet – UK digital disconnect bill voted in, April 8, 2010
Telegraph – Digital Economy Act: what happens next?
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April 9th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Hopefully, the Digital Economy Act will make more people transition from “Copyright is good as long as no-one enforces it against me” to “Copyright is an anachronistic, iniquitous, ineffective, 18th century instrument of injustice that cannot be abolished soon enough”.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:52 am
@Jon:
“…5,548 Twitter users had tweeted they don’t recognise thd every few minutes.”
Whah??
April 9th, 2010 at 11:58 am
@ DA:
Fixed. Thanks. Ahh — the dangers of cut and paste!
Cheers!
April 9th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
“Users who have technical measures enacted against them have two bodies they can appeal to: their ISP or an independent appeals body – which has been mandated to presume innocence in each case. The measure in the Act which allows the Government to block websites that are presumed to be displaying copyrighted material unlawfully, without additional legislation, is to be scrutinised by the new Government.”
So wait, they’re supposed to be presumed innocent AFTER they have technical measures used against them? Yeah, that makes sense…
April 9th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
I can’t think of a more appropriate time for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njiUFtrFky8&feature=related