Yesterday afternoon, I posted some of my current thoughts on the Digital Economy Bill at  my now defunct labour party hosted blog. This is I believe a Labour Party members only site and the article hopes to provoke Labour Party members and supporters into campaigning to see this bill defeated or amended.  It’s still on the front page so if you want to catchup with my thinking, check it out, especially if you are a Labour MP.

This is a bad law, there’s no public interest being served, it will destroy not create wealth in the economy, it inhibits the growth of platform on which the new digital economy will be built, it reinforces the economic interests of distributors not creators,  it fails to address the abusive and monopolistic behaviour of these multi-nationals, it proposes to make all and thus innocent users  pay for copyright enforcement, it contains a massive moral hazard towards the disconnection (or suspension) of non-infringing internet users, it now threatens Universities, Public Libraries and on a smaller scale internet cafes and it makes fundamental attacks on our rights to freedom of expression,  freedom of speech, right to a speedy and fair trial, our rights to privacy, rights to access to culture, all of which are guaranteed  by the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Charter and 750 years of popular struggle.

I can’t understand why Labour politicians are pursuing these policies, they can’t be popular electorally.  Most people in the UK don’t consider digital copying to be theft, and wouldn’t want a party that fights in the interests of the many and not the few to reinforce the rights of corporate capitalism, fat cat lawyers and rock star billionaires. The average wage in the UK is under £20,000, most of those people who’s ‘revenue’  the government are claiming to protect need to go back to earning wages to remember what real life on an average wage is like.

We need a new copyright law, not a more vicious enforcement of the one we have.

Against the DE Bill again
Tagged on:                             

Leave a Reply


%d bloggers like this: