Act Now: The Digital Economy Bill Petition
Posted on 17th Mar 2010 at 15:57 by Joe Martin with 53 comments
This is a really quick blog post and it's one which is only really going to be relevant to our readers in the UK, but it's still something everyone should be aware of.
Basically, the UK government is in the process of passing a bill which would regulate how UK residents might be able to use the internet. It's called the Digital Economy Bill and you don't need to take a very close look at it to see that it's full of problems - not least of which is the hazy language and poorly defined punishments suggested for alleged illegal downloaders within the UK.
Here's an example. The bill proposes that if you download illegal, copyright infringing files then your internet will be cut off. How do the government know you are downloading illegal files? Because your ISP will be obligated to monitor everything you access and download, then share it with copyright holders. Clever people could probably find a way to avoid detection, but that only complicates things.
Basically, the UK government is in the process of passing a bill which would regulate how UK residents might be able to use the internet. It's called the Digital Economy Bill and you don't need to take a very close look at it to see that it's full of problems - not least of which is the hazy language and poorly defined punishments suggested for alleged illegal downloaders within the UK.
Here's an example. The bill proposes that if you download illegal, copyright infringing files then your internet will be cut off. How do the government know you are downloading illegal files? Because your ISP will be obligated to monitor everything you access and download, then share it with copyright holders. Clever people could probably find a way to avoid detection, but that only complicates things.
