Digital Economy Bill

The Digital Economy Bill became law on Thursday. It was one of the bills pushed through parliament before Monday’s dissolution.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

It aims to clamp down on illegal file sharing. But it wasn’t completely thought through. It was rushed, discussed in House of Lords, but not House of Commons. It aims to protect big business, the film and music industry without fulling thinking through the affect on the individuals.

The bill is full of controversy as it covers such a broad range of areas, public service televisions, broadband providers, music copyrights and photographers rights all in one bill. It is also being rushed through at the end of a session. It is trying to address digital privacy but it is very heavy handed. The bill is designed to protect the interests of big business.

The privacy of individuals has been affected. The music and film industry has the power to look at the download records of people and can then ask the internet provider to cut off the internet if anyone in the house is accused of file sharing. People’s internet connection can be taken away without any fair warning.

Obviously illegal downloading and piracy is wrong. However, the people who backed this bill are not fully aware that this bill affects innocent people who are using the internet correctly who are sharing the same broadband line (eg public WiFi or Student accomadation) as those downloaders.

For more information about the Digital Economy Bill please visit the Guardian.

Photo is from flickr

One thought on “Digital Economy Bill

  1. Martin I

    The Digital Economy Bill is a disgrace. There is no excuse for rushing through law without proper parliamentary debate except possibly in cases of urgent national emergency. Even the most ardent lobbyist would struggle to portray the circumstances of this bill as such. Shame on all those who have allowed this to happen, and as usual with poorly thought through proposals it will leave individuals at the whim of those who choose how to enforce it.

    Reply

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