Britain's Fascist Internet Control
We live in an alleged democracy and one of the key elements of this wonderful political system is that we are innocent until proven guilty. However, it seems that the Internet isn’t subject to this fundamental democratic rule that we are all entitled to.
So it’s bad. £50,000 fines if someone in your house is accused of filesharing. A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000).
But that’s just for starters. The real meat is in the story we broke yesterday: Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary, would have to power to make up as manynew penalties and enforcement systems as he likes. And he says he’s planning to appoint private militias financed by rightsholder groups who will have the power to kick you off the internet, spy on your use of the network, demand the removal of files or the blocking of websites, and Mandelson will have the power to invent any penalty, including jail time, for any transgression he deems you are guilty of. And of course, Mandelson’s successor in the next government would also have this power.
That’s not just bad, that’s a political fist fuck to anyone who even gives a damn about the internet and anyone who wants to protect net neutrality.
Of course, file sharing shouldn’t be illegal, sharing illegal files specifically should be, but even if you remove that debate, being accused of doing something is not good enough in the ‘real world’; why would anyone with an ounce of sense believe it is good enough online?
What the government effectively appear to be doing, is simply giving one big blow-job to the entertainment industry. After all, capitalism triumphs over freedom.
I recommend you read the full Boing Boing article (see source below) and then sign the petition if you are a British resident.
Posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 12:01 pm, filed under Culture, Technology. Follow any responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed.
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