I’ve spoken in the past about Gordon Brown’s so called Digital Britain, which to summarise briefly is a collection of legislative powers that will be implemented with the intention of reducing file sharing on the internet.
Despite the Digital Britain report being authored by Lord Carter it is The Prince of Darkness, Lord Mandelson, that is the driving force behind the new Digital Economy Bill. Never one to turn a blind eye to cash, twice-sacked Handy Mandy is pushing hard to keep his mega-rich media mogul friends happy by promising a legislative blitz upon file sharers.
In a move labelled as “utterly shameless” by the Liberal Democrats, the former MP for Hartlepool has granted himself unprecedented power to create laws and offences on a whim without a vote even being required.
He intends to devolve investigative and enforcement powers to mega-rich media companies and lobby groups so they can crush alleged file sharers through the legal system.
Such powers include the ability to force schools, libraries, companies and ISPs to subvert the Data Protection Act and turn over private information as well as disconnect alleged file sharers without a legal case even being required.
In addition ISPs can be forced, without a court order, to spy on their users and report every last iota of activity performed by any user under investigation.
With these new powers the media industry can find out everything about you and disconnect you from the internet even if they allege that you’re sharing intellectual property for which they own the copyright.
It doesn’t stop there. As I mentioned earlier, the Secretary of State can introduce secondary legislation – he can create offences, laws and grant powers – without it even needing to be voted on. Quite scary, really.
Dear Mandy - song by Dan Bull directed at the Prince of Darkness
The Spanish government want to do this as well, but they received a warning from the European Commission that disconnecting file sharers without involving a judge would create a conflict with the EU. Under the Lisbon Treaty, though, the EU cannot impose these laws upon the UK if we have existing legislation, which basically means that the UK will be the only country in Europe where the Government’s big brother policies can be applied.
It’s not even about the rights and wrongs of file sharing, it’s about the way Peter Mandelson is granting the media industry powers to police the internet. It’s no different to MP’s. Self regulating, they are the “police” of their own cash. They took the piss. Bankers: lords of their own domain, and they took and continue to take the piss. If the media industry becomes lord of the internet then it’s going to have serious repercussions for all of us.
It’s not just about file sharing: every tiny copyright infraction can and will be hammered for cash under this new bill. Everything you look at can be logged and examined by copyright lawyers. ISPs can be forced to log and hand over your entire activity.
You could argue that it’s deserved cash and the original shouldn’t have been copied or shared but common sense, empathy and real moral judgement goes out of the window when governments, police and media juggernauts are involved.
Carphone Warehouse’s ISP, Talk Talk, has put up an official “Don’t Disconnect Us” petition against this “guilty until proven innocent” bill and I’d encourage you, if you value your privacy and freedom online, to sign it.
Clearly, the lobbying by the BPI and IFPI has paid off but there is a very unpleasant smell surrounding this whole issue, and questions have to be asked about Peter Mandelson’s involvement (again). He wasn’t interested in this issue until his freebie holiday to Hollywood and his expensive lunches with the boss of Dreamworks and now appears to be on an unrelenting crusade.
Unfortunately for him and the industry as a whole, they will never kill off file sharing or piracy. As you can see with policies relating to drugs: you can ban them and criminalise them, but whilst they are available people will still buy and take them.
The hardcore file sharing community are steps ahead of the Government all the time which unfortunately means that those people that do get caught and do get dragged through the legal system are those teenagers that were downloading tracks for their iPod and didn’t realise that BitTorrent is a peer to peer protocol or how the likes of the BPI go about catching you.
This bill is utterly self defeating and alienates a huge number of young people, for what? Big Movies and Big Music.
On a similar note, the old Davenport-Lyons scare tactics are back in town, except performed by ACS:Law and DigiProtect. What’s this? Well they are armed with 30,000 internet users’ details (mostly BT Internet) acquired by a Norwich Pharmacal Order (NPO) – a court order that requires ISPs to disclose personal details of their users – and they are sending each user a threatening letter accusing them of file sharing in the hope that the respondent will fail to respond, the resulting court case will default and their client will be able to claim the determined losses due to the alleged file sharing. If you’re one of the accused, there is a support site to help.
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This is corporate corruption at it’s worst and Mandelson who enjoyed his summer holidays with these people then acts in their interest.
This is why Labour must be voted out come the next election.
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Hear Hear, among a trillion other reasons.
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TB, put in a complaint against the duffetts, I am sure using council facilities to put abuse on a website is an offence.
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It certainly is but I can’t prove anything unfortunately.
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If the IP adrees is WBCs, I am sure they will be interested to know that their IT is being used to abuse people , all the same???
TB, Sir, you have been the victim of a relentless campaign on the gasjet and other forums.
Time for some serious retribution, GOD I hate LABOUR!
lol
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So do I, I find it hard to comprehend people still want to vote for the lying twats after 12 years of bringing the country to its knees. I find it impossible not to laugh reading those ridiculous letters Wyre moaner Clive Grunshaw keeps writing praising Brown’s handling of the economy. Do you mean by squandering billions on bailing out banks just so greedy bankers can have their bonuses and gold plated pensions, wasting billions on stupid schemes like PCSOs and wrapping the NHS in red tape forcing targets on we healthcare professionals which infuriates me, millions wasted on MPs lavish expenses, billions sqaundered on josbworths in charge of quangos. If that’s shrewd handling of the economy then I dread to think what the alternative is.
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Well said, I have learned to hate labour like no other party, their capacity for waste is boundless.
Think of the good if all thay money had been used properly.
The Millenium dome was the first of many money farces……….
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I totally agree, I despise Labour with pure passion. I cannot wait until May 2010. Dave the Brave will sweep to power and rub hs healing hands over all the countries ills and make everything better. He will then gather us all at the Summit of Mount Pleasant in London to begin the creation of a utopian society. I can’t wait.
Seriously though after 12 miserable years of Liebour, I’ve been dying to say this ‘THIIIINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTAAAH, Now we’ve ditched them’.
LABOUR OUT 2010, MARSDEN OUT 2010, WE CAN WIPE THE SMILE OFF HIS SMUG FACE (credit to Phil for that line!)
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you mean wipe the smile off his smug ARSE, lol
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i think he’s seen it as well, given that my houses of parliament viewer has checked that pic…
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sorry phil what do u mean exactly?
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Even better, he will realise that most of Blackpool is sick to death of him and Liebour wrecking Blackpool and the country. Blackpool is not even a Labour town, before that miserable year of 1997 Blackpool South and North were solid Conservative seats. Now its time for Blackpool to ditch Liebour once and for all.
MARSDEN OUT 2010, LABOUR OUT 2010 For A Better Blackpool and a Better Country.
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here here and Hodge out, Grffin in 2010!
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I mean someone from houses of parliament views this site and has checked that marsden out pic in addition to almost every politically motivated article!
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Good then the twats will know what, w e think of LIEBOUR!
probably try and say you are promoting terrorism.
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I hope mandy dies of cancer, turd sucking Nazi that he is.
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Without swearing its almost as if they are trying to shut down the Internet.
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