Protect Your Rights!

The Digital Economy Act 2010:

How did it happen?
•The entertainment industry is refusing to adapt to new models, clinging to obsolete 20th Century thinking.
•The Bill was drafted by unelected officials after lobbying from the entertainment industry.
•It was passed in a hurry during the Parliamentary "wash up" process without full scrutiny.

Why should you be worried?
•Websites will be blocked for alleged copyright infringement.
•Families accused of sharing copyrighted files will be disconnected without trial. They will have to pay to appeal.
•Even if you don't live in the UK, it sets a worrying precedent for other countries to follow suit.

Disconnection or "technical measures" like bandwidth throttling will kick in if file sharing does not drop by an incredible 70%. There are no alternative punishments to disconnection, no matter what the damage it will cause, and there is no statutory limit on the length of these disconnections, called, in the weasel words of the Act, "temporary account suspension".

Despite thousands of letters of concern and a petition with over 35,000 signatures of protest, the Bill was rushed through in the final days of parliament during the "wash up process" - it was not given the full scrutiny that it deserved.

This is a piece of legislation that gives potentially unlimited power to unelected officials, and assumes guilt on the part of those accused of copyright infringement. We can expect the industry lobbies to be out in force to roll back our human right to freedom of expression in the name of copyright very, very soon.

What's happening now?

Now that the Bill has been passed and the election is underway, candidates from all the main parties are keen to distance themselves from it. They admit that there are serious concerns and that the Bill did not receive the scrutiny and debate it deserves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_P4lJD_OPI&feature=player_embedded#!

Just one quick question: Did you become a member of The SnarkPit just to make this post? Because this message aallmost looks like spam.. Just wondering if you're thinking of becoming a real member of our site, or just someone passing by with some info.

edit. Apologies, I misread your registration date..

Yeah all around the world powerful organizations are trying to put the internet genie back in the bottle; to control it. Whether its china and iran trying to supress political speech, or the US military trying to suppress internet anonymity to prevent leaks about misconduct, or media companies trying to kick people off the internet for downloading a song(!) - the internet represents a huge threat to all their interests.

because protesting works?

**Dedi** said:
Just one quick question: Did you become a member of The SnarkPit just to make this post? Because this message aallmost looks like spam.. Just wondering if you're thinking of becoming a real member of our site, or just someone passing by with some info.

edit. Apologies, I misread your registration date..

I was about to be very offended until I read your edit. I just wanted people to know their rights and that this might come to the US because it is happening in the UK.

Haha, my sincere apologies about that. I looked next to your name, and read the date it was posted, and thought that was the registration date.

Again, sorry. I'll mow your lawn if you want.