U.K. Passes Digital Economy Bill
 

UNITED KINGDOM ? The British Parliament has passed the Digital Economy Bill which seeks to crackdown on Internet piracy and illegal file-sharing.

By a vote of 189 to 47, the bill was passed in a ?wash up? process which limited the amount of debate members of Parliament took on the bill.

The bill encompasses online copyright infringement, Internet piracy, regulation of TV and radio, regulations over ISPs and various other digital topics.

Many of the bill?s critics believe that the legislation goes too far and that not enough time was spent debating and scrutinizing bill.

According to file-sharing-friendly site, TorrentFreak.com, the bill gives copyright holders the power to spy on those who infringe on their rights and can urge the government to close websites without going to court.


On BroadBandGenie, one British Internet provider said that while it supports the protection of copyright, it opposes the provider?s expected role to send warning letters to suspected pirates, and if that doesn?t work, to disconnect customers from their broadband connection.

The Internet provider suggested, ?rather than blocking websites and cutting the connections of suspected broadband customers, new products and services should be developed to give consumers the content they want, how they want it, and for a fair price.?

Its potential impact on public WI-Fi and its harsh penalties for illegal file-sharers have been hotly debated.

TorrentFreak says the bill will not have the slightest effect on seasoned file-sharers, it will only change the rules of the game.

http://www.xbiz.com/news/119567

:2 cents::2 cents:

but "over 50% of file sharing is completely legit" (c) gadion
what are they thinking?!

From the same article:

"The bottom line is that no matter what legislation governments introduce, it is doubtful that it will have an effect on heavy file-sharers or those that can be bothered to spend 30 minutes using Google."

If they're delayed from downloading by 30 mins of using google, it's a huge step forward anyway. It'll definitely not stop those "seasoned" file sharers, but our primary concern is a broad casual audience, not fanatic filesharers who'll spend life finding ways to download free. For casual people, 30 mins of digging google could pretty much mean it is no longer worth it.

How this bill was passed and the silencing of any public debate is a disgrace. The *only* thing that could get me to even think of voting Torry (and this feels horrible saying) is if they came out and say they would scrap this and do any bill on the subject through proper debate. They won't though.

I wonder how it handles the ever touchy personal jurisdiction issue.

Read it and find out!

It's totally brilliant.

All that needs to happen to get your whole family's internet connection turned off is to be simply ACCUSED of file sharing 3 times.

This is brilliant on many levels.

1) There is absolutely no actual evidence needed at all

2) It is just for P2P traffic, lots of which is legal - like computer game patches etc

3) There is no mention of open wifi points, IP spoofing. In fact, the man in charge, Timms, thought that an IP address was something to do with intellectual property, bless him

This is the biggest fuck up for some time. It will be overturned.

Why even go through all that hassle? Do it INQUISITION style? The prosecutor just points at you and you go to the pokey? You know, its all for security and to protect motherhood and cute puppies and everything... so it must be okay.:Oh crap:mad:

this is good and bad. good for profits... but bad for those accused or busted.

I learned about this bill from TheAntiTerrorist.

It's interesting how they can rush through badly thought out shit without any proper opposition. Anybody would think parliament was a load of divvy old men who would be seriously out of their depth if you sat them in front of a computer and asked them to do more than dictate an email for their secretary to write for them.

say goodbye to privacy

If they will cut net connection to half of the UK we all are going to lost many sign ups...