Efforts by the Hollywood and Big Music to have their Three Strikes anti-P2P business plan forced into law in Britain before the next elections look doomed to failure, for the moment, at least.
Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt says he doesn’t believe the Digital Economy Bill will get through Parliament before then, “even with Tory support,” according to Times Online, which goes on:
“The Conservatives back most of the proposals, which include disconnecting persistent internet pirates,” the so-called ‘graduated response’ developed by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, it says.
And it’s just been revealed that secretary of state Peter Mandelson, who’s representing the entertainment industry in Britain, is demanding changes to the bill.
They’d mean he, or his Tory successor, another unelected official, would be free to do anything they wanted without parliamentary oversight or debate or, as long as it’s in the name of ‘copyright protection’.
Or as the story puts it, “The Bill will also contain a controversial last-minute amendment that will give ministers the ability to change copyright law to combat file sharing. The clause will grant ministers the right to update the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 in response to new technlogies as they appear, which has led to accusations from online campaigners that it would give future governments too much ammunition against pirates.”
Jon Newton
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Doomed to failure? Maybe. They must be determined to drive voters into supporting us.
The Pirate Party would not have needed to exist if copyright enforcement hadn’t gone down this road, of fighting and trying to legislate out of existence the new and changing technology, and people’s free use of that.
But the “powers that be” did choose that route, and therefore we do exist. This approach, these measures, are our reason for existence, to speak for freedom to share our culture and to communicate with others in our society, without let or hindrance from government or corporations.
And in a rather perverse way… Draconian enforcement, and blindness to the changing world, may well be the driving impetus behind making that happen in the real world. That will be more revolution than evolution, either would satisfy me however such proposals as this lead to the “revolution” route of civil disobedience and political success for the worldwide Pirate Parties.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Oh well, I just became a paid up subscriber and supporter of the Open Rights Group yesterday.
@Artists, that means another of your fans and customers has put disposable income towards fighting retarded crap like the Digital Economy Bill instead of towards buying a few movies and albums.
Next up, I will be setting up a regular donation to the Pirate Party which is yet more money that would be going on entertainment, but is now being spent on fighting against stupid ideas from MP’s and suits.
If the Digital Economy Bill does go through, then yet more money will be diverted from my disposable income towards anonymous VPN, you will lose out… again.
A whole bunch of friends and I are talking about setting up a dark net, totally private and 100% encrypted, laws will do nothing to solve the “problem” of the internet.
Will the govt get its 70% reduction…. Yes it will get a VISIBLE reduction, because everyone will be using anonymous VPN or dark nets which will be unmeasurable. On paper its going to look like a success, but I can promise you it won’t be in real life terms, we just evolve around it.
So artists, do you want my money?
Tell Mandelson to go take a running jump if you do :]
November 25th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Contrary to what some people have assumed in another thread, I agree with the Pirate Party. We have one in Canada, though stereotypically, Canadians are sleepy, we don’t really do much. Thankfully that is changing.
Now that the Pirate Party exists in Canada we have someone worth voting for, along side the Green Party (who unfortunately lost their seat in the fall 2008 election).
Three Strikes won’t stop the filesharing. It will piss a lot of people off and maybe then the masses will turn off Fox News (or the equivalent in the UK) and turn on their brains to what is happening. Maybe when they and their neighbours and their friends see “ah, the internet is dead” they will start to search to find out why.
Or maybe they will pick up a book. Either way, things will change!
It’s funny if they do pass this bill before the election, it would be like Bush leaving the Whitehouse a total mess for Obama to clean up.
“Here’s a nice fat new budget addition you’ve got to cover, not to mention a bunch of pissed off citizens who’s privacy is being invaded.”
November 25th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
@ Robert:
“Three Strikes won’t stop the filesharing. It will piss a lot of people off …”
And that sums the whole thing up in a nutshell.
Cheers!