Britain's new Internet law -- as bad as everyone's been saying

[keep_it_real]

Britain's new Internet law -- as bad as everyone's been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.

The British government has brought down its long-awaited Digital Economy Bill, and it's perfectly useless and terrible. It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the "three-strikes" rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial)

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/britains-new-interne.html

[sakabatou]

1. *facepalm*

[Kievan Rus]

2. More pandering to KKKorporate pigs

I guess eight mansions and two LeerJets for a CEO still aren't enough.

[Mojambo]

3. Man. If theirs is that bad I can't wait to see the draconian law we end up with here. n/t

[endless october]

9. here it is :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

[Taverner]

4. Now THIS is Nanny-State crap

We in the US have no right to call our government a nanny state! Even on guns!

[Taitertots]

5. I have a lot of concern for the path Britain is taking

1984 redux.
Winston works for the media corporations, not the "newspaper". Now you can't record what they are saying and try to disseminate it back at them or they will ban you from the internet. It is now the digital cutting and pasting. Digital photos can be changed to anything. Who knows what Fox news said three weeks ago? It is lost to the either. If you record it and disseminate it you will be banned from the internet.

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. Coming from a place that charges you a yearly fee just to own a TV set...

I'd say that sounds pretty lenient.

[951-Riverside]

11. Then they have people with meters and vans driving around neighborhoods...

checking to see if people are paying their license. A friend of mine many years ago said these guys will actually look into open windows to see if an unlicensed TV is on.

Britain is a very scary place.

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. Scary place? What's so scary about it?

We don't have state run TV so we instead tax broadcasters rather than the viewing public.

[951-Riverside]

13. You have cameras everywhere, vans checking for TV licnenses and draconian Internet laws

I don't care how you put it, that is a scary place. BTW in the US we don't pay a tax to watch over the air/antenna TV, its all free.

[Shagbark Hickory]

14. We have government agents and vans too. It's called the FCC.

The reason we don't pay to watch over the air TV is because we dont have state run media. We have private media companies. They pay the govt/FCC licensing fees to be able to broadcast. Advertising revenue enables those broadcasters to pay for the licenses.
On the other hand, we have to site through 15 minutes of commercials an hour. Folks in the UK dont.

[951-Riverside]

15. @On the other hand, we have to site through 15 minutes of commercials an hour.

Actually PBS is pretty much commercial free and its government funded.

@We have government agents and vans too. It's called the FCC.

I don't see how you can reasonably compare the two. In Britain they track down people simply for watching TV, in the us they track down people for illegally broadcasting/causing interference which are two very different matters.

[Shagbark Hickory]

17. You can look at watching TV as broadcasting too

there are small amounts of RF that are emitted when electronics are used that can cause interference.
Every time you use your tv, you are obligated to adhere to part 15 of the FCC rules & regulations.
In the UK, they don't track people down simply for watching TV. They track down people who haven't purchased a license that are are using their TVs anyway.

PBS may be government funded but it is also funded by donations from the public! It isn't a government run TV network. Even if it was, it's far more lucrative to get revenue from the private broadcasters than from the viewing public.

[endless october]

7. British citizens put up with that shit.

if they don't like it, they need to vote it out or run the politicians out on a rail.

the default state is politicians fucking you over in favor of those with more money than you. three choices : vote them out, revolt, or get fucked.

[enlightenment]

8. Nothing has been signed into law.

And it seems to have a lot of opposition, even from the ISPs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8366255.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/11/the_digital_economy_bill.html

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. I put old songs I find on YouTube in my Favorites. Is that a copyright infringement?

[14thColony]

16. Yet another reason I use an anonymizer to access the internet

So far so good. As far as they're concerned I spend all my time connected to the same server in the US.