The Digital Economy Act 2010

The Digital Economy Act 2010


What is the Digital Economy Act?




The Digital Economy Act is a newly passed piece of British
legislation that is meant to protect copyright online and increase
regulation and control of the way people use the Internet.


What can you do about this?

• Ask your candidates whether they oppose the Act. If your MP didn't
  bother to vote, ask why. Given the important implications this
  legislation has, it's vital that politicians make their position on the
  issue clear. E-mail your candidates directly using this tool: http://bit.ly/emailyourcandidates
  
• Inform your friends about the implications of the Act and the way
  it threats civil liberties
  and the future of Internet use.
  
• Join the Open Rights Group's Action e-mail list. This will keep you
  informed on further developments and give practical advice on how you
  can protest against the Digital Economy Act: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/sign-up-against-disconnection
  

How did it happen?

• The entertainment industry is refusing to adapt to new models,
  clinging to obsolete 20th Century thinking.
  
• The Bill was drafted by unelected officials after lobbying from the
  entertainment industry.
  
• It was passed in a hurry during the Parliamentary "wash
  up" process without full scrutiny.
  

Why should you be worried?

• Websites will be blocked for alleged copyright infringement.
  
• Families accused of sharing copyrighted files will be disconnected
  without trial. They will have to pay to appeal.
  
• Even if you don't live in the UK, it sets a worrying precedent for
  other countries to follow suit.
  

Disconnection or "technical measures" like bandwidth throttling will
kick in if file sharing does not drop by an incredible 70%. There are no
alternative punishments to disconnection, no matter what the damage it
will cause, and there is no statutory limit on the length of these
disconnections, called, in the weasel words of the Act, "temporary
account suspension".

Despite thousands of letters of concern and a petition
with over 35,000 signatures of protest, the Bill was rushed through in
the final days of parliament during the "wash up process" - it was not
given the full
scrutiny that it deserved.

This is a piece of legislation that gives potentially unlimited power
to unelected
officials, and assumes guilt on the part of those accused of
copyright infringement. We can expect the industry lobbies to be out in
force to roll back our human right to freedom of expression in the name
of copyright very, very soon.

What's happening now?

Now that the Bill has been passed and the election is underway,
candidates from all the main parties are keen to distance themselves
from it. They admit that there are serious concerns and that the Bill
did not receive the scrutiny and debate it deserves.

We in France have Hadopi , you have your Digital Economy Act . Which ever one , it means the same thing . The respective gouvernements want to clamp down on the internet and control it. Which means for us less liberty.

Will the ConDem coalition kill the DE
Act?

Doubts as Vince Cable lands Mandy's old job

12 May, 2010

The appointment of Vince Cable as the UK's
new business secretary throws the future of the controversial Digital
Economy Act into doubt.
As the country awoke this morning to the news that it has a coalition
government for the first time since World War II, it also emerged that
Cable, the Liberal Democrats' former Chancellor hopeful, has been made
Secretary of State for Business, Skills and Innovation.
This is one of the Cabinet seats formerly occupied by Lord Mandelson,
the mastermind behind the Digital Economy Act, which created new powers
to fight Internet piracy.
While the Act was panned for tilting the balance of power online away
from users and ISPs, some of its most controversial details – such as
the provisions on disconnecting persistent pirates – were left to
secondary legislation to be drawn up by the Secretary of State and
Ofcom.
The Lib Dems were the only major party to vote against the Act when it
passed last month, and newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister Nick
Clegg spoke openly during the election campaign about repealing it.
We doubt that the future of the Act would have been a priority in the
talks that led to the creation of the new Conservative-led coalition,
but with Cable now at the reins, it's far from certain that the DE Act's
powers will be handled in the way Mandelson imagined.