Digital economy bill
- Started
- Last post
- 11 Responses
- Jimbo82
Anybody know of any good legal sites out there that offer albums for cheap? I know of ones where you can get them for 2 quid, but they all seem to be russian and I feel uneasy giving my bank details over.
Reason I'm asking is because of the recently passed Digital Economy Bill. Am I being paranoid? Is it a load of hot air?
- lukus_W0
The bill has only just been proposed - write to your MP to oppose it.
Rather than actually propose measures that could stimulate a vibrant digital economy, the bill tries to sure up old media-led corporations by offering them a kind of protection; trying to scare the UK population into changing their download habits.
If it passes, it's going to be very bad. The bill proposes a series of very vague powers, which will allow people to be presumed guilty without need for a court case. As everyone knows, civil liberties in the UK have been steadily eroded under the labour government - mainly under the guise of 'terrorism threat'. This would just be another example... the sad thing is, once a these liberties have been taken there's not much chance of getting them back. Personally, I don't want to live in some bastardised 1984-type police state.
There should actually be a free debate about whether it's actually right or fair to sell digital copies of media ad-finitum. I think part of the reason some people copy files freely is because they realise that the cost involved in distributing the files is nil, and if the media conglomerates get their way they'd collect payment continually without limit. Logically it isn't fair and doesn't make sense.
This is an example of the government stepping in and exercising a protection racket on behalf of big-business - if they get their way, who knows what they'll try to do next.
If you use http://www.writetothem.com/, you can contact yr local MP for free.
- lukus_W0
If you've got a spare half an hour, write to yr MP - not sure how much difference it makes, but they definitely read yr letter and reply.
Re. downloading, I'm not sure to be honest... The whole thing makes me a bit angry. If you're going to start paying for music, if I were you I'd find some decent independent record merchants and buy from them.
Maybe just the prospect of the bill will be enough to stop people from downloading??
- detritus0
There are already copyright enforcement companies seeding, then monitoring torrent streams, in order to build up accusation lists. I read somewhere that they'd recently sent 15k payment notices to people in Britain. So, the scaring's aready long-since started.
Best start looking into encryption methods.
At least, before Mandelson has another nice wee chat with his friends in Hollywood and makes being in possession of encryption technologies a hangable offence. You dirty consumer terrorist, you.
- BIGGESTDOGINTHEWORLD0
_
If you don't sign the petition and do everything you can to stop this going through you are both a cunt and a complete moron.- You signed the petition and written to your MP?Jimbo82
- yepBIGGESTDOGINTHEWORLD
- scweetJimbo82
- ribit0
I had a letter from Sky and the BPI about an mp3 download (that I didn't download). It was slightly vague about what it was suggesting I had done. I asked them to write it again properly, but they couldn't be bothered.
- Jimbo820
So basically, the gist of it is...
- Sign the petition
- Write to your MP to complain
- Continue as normal
- BIGGESTDOGINTHEWORLD0
_
yep unless it goes through then do one of the following:
- Rent a seedbox in a free country
- Take a laptop to internet cafes and do it all there
- Hack your neighbours wifi and do it there