Tag Archives: digital economy bill

Digital Economy Bill

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The rushing through of the Digital Economy Bill through its last stages and 3rd Reading last night in the Commons was a classic example of the arrogance this Labour government has shown to many key issues. I have been shocked and appalled by the way they carry out their business – without a blush as they push through bad legislation – because they can. Rubbing right up against the dissolution of Parliament – the Government should have stop pushing this flawed Bill through – and let it come back for proper scrutiny and passage in the new Parliament – whoever is the government.

It is clear from the massive amount of unhappiness arriving in MPs’ mailboxes that there is genuine and widespread concern amongst people out there that the Digital Economy Bill has got a number of key things wrong. As I said in the debate last night – is it not more important to get it right than get it through?

Sadly, the Government whips were out – and the Bill passed despite the Liberal Democrats and a few Labour rebels voting against 3rd Reading.  It now continues again to the Lords for any 11th hour miracle that our lordships can muster. I hope that our LibDem Lords will try and block the Bill altogether.

There are key issues that need more scrutiny and need better solutions: how to deal with file sharing and illegal down-loading (making sure originators get their due but not by draconian means like web blocking) and how to make sure that ‘orphan works’ , for example photographs without a known photographer, don’t become a free source of material to those who want to use the work but don’t want to bother to find the originator and pay the copyright fees.

Without going into detail overdrive – these are massive issues that the Bill in its current form really doesn’t resolve and which could do massive harm. Given more time – there are solutions out there.

This was a real demonstration of so much that is wrong with our democratic processes – because whilst the Government can always get its business through in the end because it has more votes – to do so without proper scrutiny and debate means that bad legislation gets through. And bad legislation in Parliament – means that everyone affected by that particular issue will suffer in their walk of life.

We really are at last chance saloon today in the Lords. There is no more that can be done in the Commons. What an indictment.

"Freedom, creativity and the internet" – motion passed at LibDem conference

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Very pleased that the following motion was passed at our conference this morning regrading the Digital Economy Bill. There was an excellent debate and at the end I was with just about everyone else in the hall in voting for it:

Conference notes with concern amendment 120a to the Digital Economy Bill which facilitates website-blocking for alleged copyright infringement and which was passed on 3 March 2010.

Conference however welcomes the stand of Liberal Democrat MEPs against website-blocking and the secrecy of the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations, condemned by the European Data Protection Supervisor for endangering internet users’ fundamental rights.

Conference believes that this amendment to the Digital Economy Bill

a)would alter UK copyright law in a way which would permit courts to order the blocking of websites following legal action by rights-holders

b)would be open to widespread anti-competitive and civil liberties abuses, as the experience with the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act illustrates

c)could have a chilling effect on the internet, freedom of expression, competition and innovation as Internet Service Providers take down and/or block websites to avoid facing the costs of legal action

d)may be illegal under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and other EU law

Conference condemns

a)website-blocking and disconnecting internet connections as a response to copyright infringement

b)the threat to the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals and businesses from the monitoring of their internet activity, the potential blocking of their websites and the potential termination of their internet connections, which could lead to the closure of internet hotspots and open wifi operated by small businesses, local councils, universities, libraries and others

c)the Digital Economy Bill for focusing on illegal filesharing rather than on nurturing creativity and innovative business models

Conference supports

a)the principle of net neutrality, through which all content, sites and platforms are treated equally by user access networks participating in the Internet

b)the rights of creators and performers to be rewarded for their work in a way that is fair, proportionate and appropriate to the medium

Conference therefore opposes excessive regulatory attempts to monitor, control and limit internet access or internet publication, whether at local, national, European or global level.

Conference calls on the Federal Policy Committee to commission a new policy working group to draw up a full policy paper on Information Technology and related aspects of intellectual property which should, in particular, consider:

1.Reform of copyright legislation to allow fair use and to release from copyright protection works which are no longer available legally or whose authors cannot be identified (orphan works).

2.The ‘common carrier’ concept, under which internet service providers would not be liable for material that they may carry unknowingly on their networks.

3.The creation of a level playing field between the traditional, copyright-based business model and alternative business models which may rely on personal copying and legal filesharing.