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Archive for the ‘digital economy bill’ tag

The Free WiFi Myth

Posted on 16th Jul 2010 at 10:07 by Paul Goodhead with 42 comments

Paul Goodhead
I recently travelled back home to Burton-on-Trent to visit my family. Normally i drive but on this occasion I was making the return journey by rail. I wasn’t bothered though, I enjoy a nice long train journey and the jazzy Virgin Trains website was proudly boasting about the free WiFi that can be enjoyed on all its trains.

Awesome, I thought. My girlfriend had just recently purchased a tidy little CULV ultra-portable which I’d pinch for the day and use on the train on the way back. This would let me catch up on the day's Formula 1 highlights and maybe play some Transformice. I even thought I could take a gander at some tech news and maybe crank out a blog post on something interesting and topical. Go me and my pro-active work ethic.

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Tags digital economy bill, mobile internet, wifi

Use the internet to decide how to vote

Posted on 4th May 2010 at 08:19 by Alex Watson with 30 comments

Alex Watson
As you’ve probably noticed, we’re two days away from the General Election. Some people might find the wall-to-wall press coverage a bit over the top. I’m inclined to forgive the quantity of it – after all, we only have General Elections every five years or so, and it is quite important, the whole governing the country thing. I’m less inclined to forgive the quality of the coverage, which has frequently been extremely frustrating if you’re actually trying to make an informed decision about who to vote for.

It’s easy to become cynical, bored or horrified by the election – and to give up on it. I’ve always thought it’s important for people to care about politics (much to the displeasure of some of my friends); ultimately, if you’re not prepared to be involved in the process, then it’s no surprise that you get travesties such as the recent Digital Economy Bill getting passed in to law.
Still, we’re all busy people. Jobs to do, homework, DIY, games to play, blog posts to write. The problem with giving a toss is that it takes valuable time. Fortunately, the internet is here to help; it makes getting information on your MP very, very easy, and in a few minutes of browsing you’ll be able to equip yourself with all the facts you need.

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Tags digital economy bill, election, open source, politics

The government is as clueless as the music industry about the Internet

Posted on 10th Apr 2010 at 10:48 by Antony Leather with 43 comments

Antony Leather
So the Digital Economy bill has largely been passed here in the UK (except for a few loose ends). It's been a topic of conversation in countless online forums and indeed here in the office.

However, while there's something positive to be said for wanting to reduce piracy, and for the government at least taking an interest in the Internet, I'm not the only one to think the process by which this bill has been created, debated and passed into law is extremely worrying.

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Tags digital economy bill, government, law, politics

Act Now: The Digital Economy Bill Petition

Posted on 17th Mar 2010 at 15:57 by Joe Martin with 53 comments

Joe Martin
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.

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Tags 38degrees, digital bill of rights, digital britain, digital economy bill, petition, politics
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