New anti-piracy legislation to be presented to the public today.

[cloudeh]

How do you feel about ISP's monitoring your traffic and giving otherwise private information over to the authorities for investigation?
So much for the data protection act.

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 he told TorrentFreak that the information comes from someone “very close to the Labour government” who he trusts implicitly.

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.

http://torrentfreak.com/uks-terrifying-anti-piracy-plans-leak-091119/

This is all rumour for the next 8 to 12 hours of course.
But nonetheless, doesn't mean we can't talk about it D=

[draconacticus]

Hardly suprising news. Labour loves to errode civil liberties. They won't be happy until they can tattoo bar codes on our foreheads and scan us like a tin of peas. Not suprising coming from Lord Meddlesome, he's a poisonous asp.

I can't think the House of Lords will let this go by easily though.

[Bobafet]

I know this is kinda off topic but Lord? House of lords?
Could someone please explain me how does it work in england? :p

And yeah, that law is really awful in terms of internet privacy... the world is slowly changing to the world similar in mirrors edge - constantly under control and watched

[draconacticus]

I know this is kinda off topic but Lord? House of lords?
Could someone please explain me how does it work in england? :p

I'll do my best...

We elect regional MPs (members of parliament), they represent their constituency. Each constituency has a seat in the House of Parliament. The political party with the most seats is the one that wins power and governs. Our laws are debated, proposed, voted on and then passed by parliament. However, before they are enshrined in law they have to also be approved by the House of Lords.

The House of Lords is made up of Lords and Baronesses (these titles are called peerages) who are not elected as such. Political parties are able to nominate people for peerages. So they are kind of elected by the different political parties. People used to be able to inherit peerages but that has stopped in recent years. Peers now tend to be ex-politicians or people who have contributed an awful lot to business/society in one way or another.

The House of Lords is there basically as a safety mechanism in case the current government is completely underpants-on-the-head mental and starts trying to pass oppressive or stupid laws. It's lucky we have them really because our current government is nuttier than squirrel poo and are trying to destroy all of the British people's civil liberties.

Viva la revolution!

[Tenchu13]

Over here (in France), they have tried to something similar called the "Hadopi" law. I never read the whole text but in short it stipulates that they can monitor your internet "data-usage", read how much you download, and when they think that it is abusive they will investigate and either disconnect or worse risk jail-time combined with massively high fines.

With laws like this soon we can't even go to the toilet anymore without "them" knowing it.

Although I do support all artist worthy of doing so by buying all the books/cd's/records etc from all the groups/writters/artists that I deem worthy, some majors really need to rethink their distribution options and prices as to level them with the 21st century. I can only talk for myself of course but I can't and won't pay 15-20 euros for a small new group that I have never heard of. And I simply don't have the time anymore to go to a record store pick a random pile of 20-30 records and listen to them all. Even though I have done so in the past, unless you're a pro-DJ nobody does this anymore. And even if you'd wanted most stores don't even have this option anymore... Sometimes it is just faster to download something to try, and then buy. (and besides who wants 128kbs mp3's on their ipod/mp3 player... which is still the most used bitrate nowadays)

Same goes for movies/tv series. I do download them, for the simple reason that in France everything is dubbed and released about 1 to 2 years after the initial release... which is in 100% of all cases a bad thing. Being raised in Holland where everything was subbed I simply can't imagine a tv series like 24 or weeds or whatever to be in french.

And didn't we already had the same problem/discussion way over 20 years ago when the first video recorder; and cassette-decks and the walk-man and mp3 players etc) where released...and later the blanc cassettes, mini-discs and eventually cdr's) These inventions made life easier and never killed sales like they always predicted. They where just inventions following the age of modern progression.

A decent games costs around 50 euro but it give you like a few hundred of hours of playing time, if not more. A movie which you watch only a few times in your life, and which in most cases already made millions in theaters, cost around 20 euro... Downloading does not kill sales... the overkill high prices and large marges of most of the majors do.

(Just for my personal defense... I do own 700+ cd's, +- 100 records (vinyls) around 100 games ranging from nes to psp (nes/snes/cube/ds/ps/ps2/psp) and have quite a large dvd collection of easily 500+ dvds. Figurines/merchandise and goodies not even listed. If I really like something I'll pay for it, and most of the time and if possible in limited/collectors editions. Just in case people are willing to attack me on my "highly illegal" downloading, don't bother. But it is true that I almost only buy what I know, have tested/seen and find worthy to buy...)



-------- ok I have now finaly finished my personal rampage... back to my psp ... --------

[itsmyyard]

Even if the House of Lords stop it going through, they can still push it through parliament again, and if it succeeds the second time, the lords cant stop it.