In the most ludicrous pantomime of democracy last night, two hours were spent debating and passing the Digital Economy Bill - legislation aimed at tackling the hugely complicated issue of filesharing and copyright. Putting aside the fact that copyright laws are now utterly incapable of coping with the new digital age, the law allows for internet connections to be closed down is someone is suspected of downloading/uploading copyright material from that location.
Businesses… let’s hope none of your staff are downloading music. Are you a cafe with free wifi? You are now responsible for for everything that any of your customers download. Libraries… likewise. If you have wifi at home, you’d better get it encrypted. But even that won’t work – savvy downloaders can easily anonymise their IPs and crack your encryption.
There are so many problems with this bill that really can be summed up with one thought: The people who have created this legislation DO NOT KNOW HOW THE INTERNET WORKS. That’s why it’s being opposed by everyone who does. It is a law that doesn’t protect artists (who have lots of new opportunities to get their work some attention via the net), it protects the recording industry (NB – not music industry), who have refused to adapt their business models to the new reality and are simply trying to use legislation to prop up their old (failing) models.
As someone on the Now Show said, It’s akin to trying to prop up the blacksmiths industry by forcing all car owners to put a few horses feet on their car. Wake up people – the world is changing! The internet is changing everything about media – this is a revolution, so won’t be stopped by laws… the revolution will just become set against the authorities and a greater conflict created.
Laurence Lessing is a good voice to listen to in this debate – he’s a law professor who specialises in copyright and the digital economy… and the good news for the US is that he is advising the White House. Here’s what he has to say about how the law is actually killing creativity, not protecting it:
For us in the UK, we have just woken up in a new reality – when the bill becomes law – in about a year and half’s time, large corporations will have the power to disconnect you from the internet if they THINK you have been breaching copyright. Important parts of the new information economy like Wikileaks can be blocked by the UK government because they are sharing information that is copyrighted… even if it is revealing corruption and abuse at the highest levels of power.
Believe – this is not the end… the internet and it’s users are way, way way better informed and resourced than the government and large businesses could ever be – our tools for collaboration and communication are so much more advanced than institutions that were created when letter writing was the most efficient form of communmication. The government has just picked a fight that it cannot win, and will spend vast sums of money and amounts of time in Canute-like behaviour that subsequent generations will hold up as a case study of idiotic posturing against the inevitable forces of history. For “luddites”, read Digital Economy Bill.
If you’d like to do something about this – then join the Open Rights Group
Find out if your MP voted for or against the bill… or just didn’t bother
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