The Digital Economy Bill is being passed through parliament right now. It has already gone through the Lords, and there is nothing good that can come of this Bill for the standard internet user.
The ISPs provide a connection to the Internet as a paid service. That is in their definition, and it’s in the acronym. Yet now we find them being placed in the unenviable position of policing their own networks, passing their information off to lawyers without any way of fighting it, and leaving customers with either fines, jail terms, or as a lesser answer, having their Internet connection cut off. Wasn’t there a survey done recently that considered Internet access to be a civil right in the developed world (Post-rant edit: Details of the survey can be found here, courtesy of the BBC)? The ability to access information on the Internet is critical to people’s success in education and business. TalkTalk already use their contracts to throw people off the internet ‘without judiciary course’, but this is an absolute joke. Everybody knows that the Digital Economy Bill is a waste of time, and it’s not going to help anyone. It could effectively shut Youtube off from the UK, if it’s dealt with to the full extent of the law as outlined by this Bill. It’s interesting that Peter Mandelson came up with the bill, when it was his dinner with a record boss that sparked this crusade. I wrote about this, and yet few places did, unless it was in their field of expertise (i.e. a tech or filesharing blog).
So how is it in a country where lobbying is illegal, that we have a Bill that has passed it’s second stage of approval, that was originally conceived by effective lobbying from a record boss. I just can’t understand it, yet it’s being let through all the same. We have people in filesharing networks that are fighting it, but that’s going to be next to useless. All the Government have to do is put the pirate flag atop them and no-one will consider what they write to be credible, and anything they say to be anything in their own interest. It’s a draconian measure, and it’s going through with much controversy, but none of that has gone through the media. Why? Because TV bosses will be able to bend it to their advantage, and make sure that none of their content gets copied onto the internet.
Presence breeds exposure. Exposure breeds debate. Debate brings change. And all the media, music business, and anyone who has anything copyrighted wants to weigh it in their favour and more so than it has been in the past.
KAECY.US is the freshly resurrected blog of Allan 'Kaecyus' Bowden-Smith; an Aion nut with too much time on his hands. 
