TorrentFreak report that tomorrow morning Lord Mandelson will present the Digital Economy Bill to the public, which among other things is aimed at reducing illicit file-sharing. According to parts of the bill that leaked today, the legislation could lead to jail terms for file-sharers and unprecedented power for the entertainment industries. Over the past months the UK government has tried to tackle the issue of online piracy. This has resulted in a proposal from Lord Mandelson, who plans to disconnect alleged file sharers without any judicial process. Tomorrow the exact text of the bill is expected to be made public, but according to early reports, the legislation will open all doors for a digital police state where alleged pirates will be crucified by private companies. Judging from some of the plans that leaked earlier today, the endless lobbying efforts of the entertainment industry by anti-piracy outfits including IFPI and the BPI have definitely paid off. Cory Doctorow has the scoop on BoingBoing and if accurate, the new legislation will be a disaster for the privacy of all Internet users while giving unprecedented powers to the entertainment industry. Under the new bill the Secretary of State would be able to pass secondary legislation without Parliamentary oversight in order to protect rights holders. Three reasons are given: 1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements. (for example, he could authorize jail terms for file-sharing, or create a “three-strikes” plan that costs entire families their Internet access if any member stands accused of infringement) 2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to “confer rights” for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc) 3. The Secretary of State would get the power to “impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement” (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright “militias” can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web) The leaked information mainly shows that the Secretary of State will have the power to introduce all kinds of draconian measures without Parliamentary oversight. More details on concrete policy dealing with alleged file-sharers and the proposed three-strikes system have yet to be announced.
a few questions. 1. is this legitimate? 2. as someone who has no real understanding of how your particular government puts bills/proposals into law, is this final? or is it just something thats being proposed? the article seems to be mostly opinions generated from a few lines in quotes, obviously taken out of context from something larger and more informative. if it is legitimate, it seems youre about to have a shit-ton of rights trampled on. =/ of course, it may just be scare tactics and precedent to prosecute major offenders, like the DMCA in the US, which sounds scary in print, but really only gets used to catch people who are pirating for profit or people that host a large amount of pirated material. the average user, like me, who pirates for personal use, and on a pretty small scale, still enjoys relative anonymity and is never bothered by any authority about it.
With the number of rights that it will violate then probably not, or did you mean is this really happening? I think at the moment it's just a proposal. On the TorrentFreak site, comment #35 gave a summary of what can apparently happen if the bill goes through. They don’t need to involve the courts in order to send people to jail. (no right to a fair trial) They can be given the power to monitor your internet activities..even if your not a pirate…at any time…without a court order. (an invasion of privacy) They can force ISPs to send anything that is uploaded to a copyright review law firm before it actually goes onto the internet. (no freedom of speech) I wonder how many people in a position of power will seriously consider this?