News Parliament passes Digital Economy Bill

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/04/08/parliament-passes-digital-economy-bill/1

 

Unbelievable. If ever there was a time to lose faith in this government this was it.

 

It's nice to see our 'digital economy' law matching out libel law in its insanity.

Now, can someone help me find where I can download a car?

 

Madness!
Also if an ISP has to suspend someone does that mean that they lose a customer? In a few years time these companies will still be down on sales, and what will they blame it on then? On the bright side this may increase jobs in the law profession.

 

That's a bright side??

 

I forsee adverts for people who've been unfairly cut off from their internet and want to claim.

Between that, injury claims, mis-sold PPI and cash for gold crap it'll be all we get any more. Might improve the beeb's viewing figures i suppose. Or more likely it'll increase torrenting of shows online.

HA it'll cause piracy (loose).

 

Meh, total non issue for people who don't pirate copyright material.

 

like you've never

 

Hardly. How many people use your Internet connection at home?

Or far worse: This law does not require you to have committed a crime. It requires you to be accused only. So if you were my neighbour and you annoyed me, I can phone up 3 times reporting you for pirating stuff on your Internet connection and then you'll have none.

On the plus side that latter scenario means this law will probably be removed when someone challenges it. I'm not a solicitor, but a law like this can't be on strong legal ground. It's got to be pretty close to an illegal law.

Before people say 'oh no, they have to have evidence', they say themselves they dont: that their account appears to have been used to infringe copyright.

One step closer to thought police. We've already got parents being reported by their own children for 'green infractions' - how long before they start being reported for 'not agreeing with everything the state says'?

 

Also if you provide a wifi service with your business you're legally responsible for anything that is downloaded with it. Oops end to free wifi everywhere. And its not just pirates that are against it BT and The British Library also spoke out.

 

I used to torrent tv shows frequently and the occasional movie or game. I can honestly say I haven't pirated anything since about half way through Uni (so nearly 5 years ago now).

1. It s more hassle than its really worth, dodgy torrents that don't complete, are slow or just are garbage (Spanish dubs anyone!).
2. I enjoy movies and games so why not encourage them to make more of what I like by giving them the money to do so (shock horror). After all everyone moans about console ports but if you don't support the companies that makes the games you did enjoy what do you expect to happen.

As a result I dont have to have TB's of storage, hundreds of iffy codecs which are notoriously buggy, no torrent client, my bandwidth isn't throttled so when I do want something of steam its damn quick, oh and no one is going to sue me to boot.(this is a benefit of not pirating rather than a reason not to)

 

Three words, my friend. Slippery. ****ing. Slope.

Next comes the deep packet inspection (government mandated of course) to monitor piracy and then, oh, well we might as well check for terrorism while we're at it and before you know it, all electronic communication is being warrentlessly wiretapped.

 

The bill also grants the the secretary of state for business the power to block "a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright". Wikileaks for example.

 

How does this affect heavy users? Seems that if your a heavy user your gonna be accused of illigal downloading

 

It's nice to know that our government is controlled by the corporations and not be the people.

 

I live on the Jolly Roger

I live in a shared house. ALL male ALL downloading ALL the time. Wouldn't be surprised if MI5 breach the front door, after practising on CODmw2 =)

Not too worried to be honest. Like with all piracy, it evolves while officials are still scratching their balding heads over the last crack/mod/homebrew etc.

Even less worried considering we can already encrypt downloading to disguise it from ISPs.

In fact there are already programs that do it without you even knowing. Fabulous.

Maybe I should shut up and try to keep this quiet hahaha. Stupid MPs they are rubbish

 

Erm, I don't think that's quite how it works. Do you have any proof of that (which I would find hard to believe, since the Bill was only passed last night), or are you just making it up? Because I'm pretty sure they can't take any action against you until you've been proven guilty (and we all know how well that worked out when law firms started trying to sue people).

Heavy user of what? If you're a heavy user of P2P filesharing programs, then yes, you'll probably get accused of illegal downloading. Unless you take measures to prevent detection and protect your identity. Which most heavy P2P users do.

 

At least there will always be that guy down the pub flogging dvds and software for 10bob each, I'll get some duty free fags off him as well whilst I'm at it

 

At the moment I just see games developers shying away from the PC and using piracy as excuse. At the same time I see forumites bragging that they are going to torrent something or have torrented whatever game the thread is talking about. If you are a pirate you deserve what is coming to you. If you are not a pirate, the first warning from your ISP should inspire you to clear your name before things progress. Carpet-bombing from parasitic law firms should be the last thing you see, not the first.

Glad to see the orphan works clause 43 has been ditched though.

 

When do we get a law forcing ISP's to provide the service we pay for? I get 4MB (6 on a good day) broadband dispite paying for 10MB. (and don't give me all that crap about it being to do with where i live. don't sell me 10MB if you know i can't use it!) So instead of passing laws that actually benifit the masses, parlament would rather pass bills that criminalise us?! This is madness....