Today there’s an important bill going the House of Commons. It’s the Digital Economy Bill, if you use the Internet (so that defo includes you :) ) and/or produce content that is distributed online, you should be interested.
The Bill started in House of Lords, backed by Lord Mandelson (and a lot of people are concerned that as he was unelected, he shouldn’t be sponsoring a bill that will have such an impact on their online lives).
Proper debate is important
The main concern of people is that it looks like the Bill will be rushed through without proper debate in the Commons, and, considering that if it becomes law it might lead to people’s Internet connection being cut off, they feel the debate is vitally important. They argue that it’s illegal to cut off water, so why should it be OK for that to happen with an Internet connection.
Wikileaks under threat
It’s of note that freedom to access sites like Wikileaks could be cut off, as they carry documents containing copyright material (mostly company documents that companies don’t want released, because they’re doing things they shouldn’t be doing). That would mean the end of exposures like the attempted Trafigura Super-injunction cover-up.
The apparent rush is that the present government wants to have it pass into law before the upcoming election.
It’s a wide-ranging bill that covers a lot of online things which has got some good things in it like adding Public Lending Right to e-books and spoken books, but many people – particularly photographers – are worried that part of the bill about orphaned works (photos found on the Internet when the original photographer can’t be identified) could be used without proper payment to them.
You can act
If you’re not happy about this, you can make your views know from the comfort of your computer, but it’s going to have to be this morning.
As it’s late in the day, the only person you can write to is Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons to implore her to ensure a proper debate over this.
Just visit these two link to easily write to your MP (Andrew Turner on the Island) and Harriet Harman – it’s really easy to do.
More background reading
Digital economy bill: what you need to know.
Image: rq? under CC BY-SA 2.0
