Their Lordships on the Digital Economy

The Pirate Party wiki has an interesting page with extracts from the second reading from the House of Lords on the Digital Economy Bill. Some of the quotes I have to say (but not all) are perceptive and spot on the mark...

"There is a huge danger here. A huge group of our people are doing something that they do not think is wrong or a crime. It is dangerous for us to be putting into effect legislation that puts a whole lot of people in a criminal situation when they do not think that they are committing a crime."   Lord Mitchell

"On the whole, the small people will not be protected by patent law because they cannot afford it. There will be no one on the internet looking for their songs being downloaded and no one interested in pursuing those cases. The small people are already putting their stuff out through other methods." Earl of Erroll

"The information obtained by copyright owners, and in a sense laid before ISPs, is allegations of breach of copyright, not infringements in themselves."  Lord Clement Jones
 
"Checking on other people’s internet traffic to see whether file-sharing is taking place is akin to opening somebody’s post in envelopes to see whether they have illegally photocopied books"  Baroness Miller

There are lots more - interesting reading...

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party - Working for copyright reform.

Kill Bill: Stopping the Digital Economy Bill

You must have heard about the Digital Economy Bill...   the UK government's proposals for regulating the Internet.  It's been widely criticised - particularly for continuing to promote the governments line on excluding users from the Internet and for obscene new powers for ministers to make up copyright enforcement as they go along.  The leaders in the digital economy are firmly against it - including both ISPs and industry heavyweights like Google, Yahoo and eBay. The EFF describes in no uncertain terms that this bill will fetter the digital economy and stifle innovation.

Don't like it?  Then don't accept it.  Here's some simple steps to take to help stop this unacceptable legislation.

• Write to your MP ... or visit them.  Tell them in simple terms why this is a BAD proposal.
• Write to a Lord.  The bill has to pass the Lords.  Yesterday was the second reading but it will be back.  Details here from the Open Rights group.  Note - choose one of the Lords listed as a speaker in the debate (listed in the comments)
• Join the Open Rights Group.  Strong membership (and financial support) help them to lobby on this and other digital rights issues.
• Join the Pirate Party.  Britains only political party dedicated to protecting users rights on the Internet and creating a forward looking digital economy.  Becoming a pirate shows that the digital economy matters to voters - and there is an election coming up.
• Sign the petition against the bill at Number10.gov  (now almost 29 000 signatures)
• Join the Facebook group - I won’t vote for any MP who supports Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill -and remember to tell your MP!
• Blog about it...
• Make sure all your friends do too  (all of the above!)

Don't sit back and let them...  Do something.  and do it now!

More on the DEB:
Open Rights: The Digital Economy Bill - a first critical look
Liberty: Disconnection is disproportionate and indiscriminate
Mandy and Me: Some thoughts on the Digital Economy Bill
Britain's new Internet Law - as bad as everyone has been saying, and worse.

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party -  Working for copyright reform.