Anti-piracy bill passed in 'wash up'
Web users who share files illegally over the internet could now be denied access to the internet after the Digital Economy Bill was passed by both houses of Parliament on Thursday.
Along with the Finance Bill 2010 and the Bribery Bill, the controversial Digital Economy measure was rushed through its final Parliamentary stages with a minimum of debate. Only around 40 MPs turned up for the bill’s third reading in the Commons, though larger numbers were hovering around the lobby when it came to the vote, which went 189 in favour and 47 against.
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Never was the old saying more true - better no law than bad law.
This law will lead to numerous actions for damages.
Many internet companies (Virgin for example) use volatile IP addresses. This means that you could gget the bill for what someone in the next street downloaded.
There have already been many cases of one particular disreputable firm sending demands to people for things they know nothing about.
As always with Labour - they are working on the "guilty till proven innocent" basis. Disgraceful.
Disgraceful
This is one bill that really should have had more thought rather than simply being passed without debate, in a 'wash up' exercise.
There are all sorts of 'holes' in the execution of the law rather than just the theory; as outlined by Doug Richard.
- how does it deal with piggy backing unsecured networks
- what happens in respect of internet cafe's or public wi-fi areas
- is it right that the owner/subscriber rather than the culprit should be penalised for something they don't know is occuring
Frankly one has to question whether the politicians have sufficient knowledge to be able to make these sorts of decisions; or are they simply pandering to the music lobby. Don't forget these are the same people cold calling small businesses asking if they play music to their staff and then hitting them with a bill - bullying underhand tactics
http://torrentfreak.com/massive-protest-against-uk-anti-piracy-bill-100319/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration/?p=4526