The Adam Smith Institute is the latest to come out with criticism of the UK Goverments plans for the 'Digital Economy'. They have released an online briefing paper on Digital Britain - which is described in brief on their website under the title Leave 'Digital Britain' alone.
Aside from a key message that the digital economy is doing very well thank you without government interference it takes the government to task for not taking privacy issues seriously. It also makes this superbly simple suggestion.
"The report suggests that personal identity and all data associated with it should be defined in law as private property owned by the individual. Any use of that personal data without the owner’s consent would thereby become unlawful."
Yesterday would not be soon enough....
Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party - Putting privacy first.
Monday 7 December 2009
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1 comment:
So you're proposing that just as for the last 300 years we've deluded ourselves that we can continue to own our intellectual works even after we've disclosed them, we can now delude ourselves that we can continue to own our 'personal data' even after we've disclosed it?
If you send me an MP3 of you singing I can make and distribute copies of that as easily as I can make and distribute copies of your birth date and marital status.
Ultimately if you don't want something distributed, don't distribute it. Laws against cultural liberty and free speech are as doomed for music as they are for personal data. If you have a magical law that prevents the sharing of personal data you also have a law that prevents the sharing of music.
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