The Digital Economy Act 2010

The Digital Economy Act 2010

What is the Digital Economy Act?

The Digital Economy Act is a newly passed piece of British legislation that is meant to protect copyright online and increase regulation and control of the way people use the Internet.

How did it happen?

* The entertainment industry is refusing to adapt to new models, clinging to obsolete 20th Century thinking.
* The Bill was drafted by unelected officials after lobbying from the entertainment industry.
* It was passed in a hurry during the Parliamentary "wash up" process without full scrutiny.

Why should you be worried?

* Websites will be blocked for alleged copyright infringement.
* Families accused of sharing copyrighted files will be disconnected without trial. They will have to pay to appeal.
* Even if you don't live in the UK, it sets a worrying precedent for other countries to follow suit.

Disconnection or "technical measures" like bandwidth throttling will kick in if file sharing does not drop by an incredible 70%. There are no alternative punishments to disconnection, no matter what the damage it will cause, and there is no statutory limit on the length of these disconnections, called, in the weasel words of the Act, "temporary account suspension".

Despite thousands of letters of concern and a petition with over 35,000 signatures of protest, the Bill was rushed through in the final days of parliament during the "wash up process" - it was not given the full scrutiny that it deserved.

This is a piece of legislation that gives potentially unlimited power to unelected officials, and assumes guilt on the part of those accused of copyright infringement. We can expect the industry lobbies to be out in force to roll back our human right to freedom of expression in the name of copyright very, very soon.

What's happening now?

Now that the Bill has been passed and the election is underway, candidates from all the main parties are keen to distance themselves from it. They admit that there are serious concerns and that the Bill did not receive the scrutiny and debate it deserves.

More at: http://thepiratebay.org/special/2010_uk_dea.php

Heard of this, Matt?

It doesn't quite work like that and what the article has listed was the original intent as suggested by the industry (yes, business sticking its nose in). As far as I understand it now, only the worst offenders are going to have their internet disconnected.

Despite claims that this is the result of big government, it is actually the brainchild of the music industry who have ignored research regarding the extent of copyright infringement in order to further their own cause to limit digital music, both legal and illegal. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/21/study-finds-pirates-buy-more-music. This is pressure from the industry, nothing more and it is about time that the parastical labels got their come uppance. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesword/2010/03/digital-economy-bill-is-disast.html

Ben Goldacre has a damning article here http://www.badscience.net/2009/06/home-taping-didnt-kill-music/

That's why i posted it. Pirate Bay is in Sweden, so i was curios to see if they got things wrong.

I'm not against pirating myself. I've grabbed a few things from there (movies, music). I'm selective though.

On one hand, i see where they all come from on this but on the other hand.... it's the new age of internet. Until they can stop it, it's going to continue.

What pisses me off is how some don't even want you to make a blank cd of your own sh!t. That's bullshit. I make my own 'greatest hits' discs now and then. Since i paid for the product i should be able to do that. But i have a few cd's that have copy protection on them. That's ok. I have a program that defeats it.

Me too. I am always streaming films but the thing is I end up buying 9/10 of the films I watch illegally. The ony reason I don't buy them is if I didn't actually like them.

The law over here has been clarified (about 20 years ago) that you are allowed to make back ups of your CDs and technically, if you own a legal copy, you can make your own compilations. It is ridiculous and it smacks of profiteering. Labels say by pirating CDs you affect the artist and that is bullshit. In the last few years a great number have come out to declare that they don't care about their music being pirated, maybe because they know that people who pirate music are also buying it. Artists make most of their money through gigs and merchandising.

Furthermore, some artists have advised fans not to buy latest "Greatest Hits" CDs because they are receiving zero royalties and they have had no say in the release (Morrisey comes immediately to mind). I think record labels are an anachronism in the digital age, a throwback to the 1950s when artists didn't have the opportunity or the money to market themselves. In the 21st century, with the internet freely available, I don't think labels are really necessary.

The record companies are to blame. Artists in general only get around $1.00 for each cd sold. Might be different now. That was back in the late 90's. Then they'd market groups/singers that had maybe only one good song with the rest being filler sh!t.

I downloaded the whole discography (in MP3) of the Norwegian metal band, Dimmu Borgir, and i like it so much that i bought the cd's. I hate MP3 sound quality to start with.

Another was that game, Left 4 Dead. I downloaded that of Pirate Bay. I played it for a couple weeks and was totally addicted to it (still am) and bought it shortly afterward to take advantage of updates to the game.

All this said, i'm still a fan of cd format. If i grab anything these days of the 'net, i get in FLAC format and burn it to disc. FLAC is lossless.