Alright, the whole Digital Economy Bill thing seems to have died down, at least a little bit. I’ve decided to try and work on a short story some time this week, and at least get some of the framework up off the ground. I also need to get round to learning how to draw, which I’ve always wanted to be able to do.
I’ll try not to rant this time. Promise. I bring you new information on the UK Digital Economy Bill! As we move further and further from the day that the bill was made law, we should start to see everyone settling down, and starting to accept the inevitable, right? A simple Google search will reveal what is, perhaps, the opposite. Recently, both O2, the mobile network and broadband provider spoke out against the Digital Economy Bill, with O2′s own Felix Gayr likening the bill to being an action of ‘Luddites’, who cannot adapt to the 21st century. Personally, I agree with this statement, and so does TalkTalk, with Andrew Hearney deeming the bill a ‘washup’.
Not to mention, twitter is alive with comments about the bill, both protests and support. For more information, you should probably take a look at Wikipedia for unbiased information about the Digital Economy Act. For Biased information, just google ‘Digital Economy Bill’.
If you’re against the bill, do us a favor and spread the word around. Hey, you could even send some people a link to this and the previous post! That would be helpful. And awesome. You are an awesome person if you do that. Seriously.
No, really.
Recently, very recently, the digital economy bill got passed. What does this mean? It means that the goverment now has the right to block websites from the public, and forces ISPs to take action against any form of file sharing, without going to court first. So, no more legal fights, just boom, connection throttled. Or even disconnected.
Shockingly, it doesn’t even seem that any actual thought was put into this bill. The bill passed despite objections from the liberal democrats, and even objections from some members for the party that placed it. A small form of mercy comes in the fact that some clauses were cut from the final version, including a clause to make every member of the public pay an extra £6.50 on top of their internet connection fee, simply to fund a better ‘network’. Yeah, a government controlled, filtered, ‘this-is-what-we-want-you-to-see’ network.
Worse, this ability to slow or disconnect your internet expands to every connection. Including those in hospitals, schools, universities, libraries. So, some poor punk connects his laptop to a libraries wifi, downloads a simple music track to listen to while he reads, and the library loses its connection indefinitely. Don’t let this happen.
Even some MPs were heard talking about how it’s better to ‘Submit the bill now, and fix problems after the election.’ Well. I guess you didn’t see that coming. So, what can we do? Protest. Read up on the bill, and write more blogs about it. Everywhere, spread it. Hubpages. Blogger. Blogspot. WordPress. Your website. Send editorials to newspapers. Visit the Open Rights Group. Or the Pirate Party UK.
Tell everyone. I’d rather not have my privacy ruined like this.
