Digital Economy Act- bad times.

Soooo...as you may have gathered from my last blog, if I have no college info to report, I am posting my random finds from the interwebs. I suppose the reason I am starting that, is because I spend a lot of time looking for news stories which I find of interest. So for every blog, I don't have any college things to report, I will post some news, something which I value as important, so it will either be comic books, music or technology. :P

A big SERIOUS news story is the UK government passing the Digital Economy Act, where it deals with 'copywrite issues in a modern society'. The main points of this Act is that if there are repeated infringements on copywrite, after warnings from their Internet Service Provider (ISP) people can be cut off from the interwebs. This is a serious issues as if you get accusations, and your connection gets stopped, will it stop you from getting access with another provider? This could end up like some sort of quality check, and I can see ISPs profiteering on people with a poor history, where they have been banned by a provider.

This is a very serious concern, as there has already been numerous cases where innocent people have been threatened with court orders, after a company accuses them of illegal file sharing. Now, my stance is, if the method of 'catching' people is not efficient, how can a bill be passed to give the people who use these methods more power? It just doesn't make sense. People are becoming nervous. Broadband  connections ARE NOT 100% hack-proof. Even with a password protected connection, people can still find a way to gain access. Now if these people, using your connection unauthorised, do something illegal and get caught. Its you as the account holder who will get penalised. Security needs to improve on routers, and detection methods need to be more solid, for this act to be a success.

Now the big thing that bothered me with this Act was Clause 43, which was for Photography, and that if the author of a particular image could not be contacted, then the image can be used anyway. This raised fears that someone would find a picture on Google, and simply say 'I couldn't find the author' and they could use the image. This was dropped last-minute out of the bill, and will presumably get put through Parliament again once normality has resumed after the 6th May election.

It is very concerning that this bill was pushed through, just before parliament was dissolved for the election.  It is a bill which affects every person in the UK with an internet connection, and yet the majority of MPs were not present to vote on whether the bill should pass into law. This sneaked through, as if it was forced. And the media is making more fuss over Google, Microsoft and Facebook. This act was not publicised, because there would be an almighty backlash about it. Most of the MPs were working on how to start their campaigns for the General Election, rather than supporting something which could affect even themselves.

Without a foolproof method of detecting the law breakers, this act should NEVER have seen the light of day.

So, a rather serious blog, but I feel that everyone who has an issue with this Act needs to raise their concerns. We live in a democracy, where people can no longer be bothered to fight for their rights. This act should have been postponed till AFTER the election, it should not have been rushed through, like it was.

Read more about the Digital Economy Act 2010-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/08/digital-economy-bill-passes-third-reading

O2's reaction http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/news/20100412-o2-speaks-out-against-luddite-digital-economy-bill

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/09/digital-economy-bill-backlash

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8603285.stm

I know this act was passed last week, but when candidates come knocking on your door ask why they allowed this to go through. Ask them why they didn't vote. I have already contacted my MP Willie Rennie about this, and will say if he decides to reply. I am not holding my breath.