Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security, freedom
The Digital Economy bill, known on Twitter as #debill, passed today. The short version is that this thing makes the DMCA look like a warmup act. Cory’s traveling, but you can expect his thoughts here soon. For now, Mike Butcher sums up the danger eloquently:
Correcting the ignorant UK Members of Parliament who “debated” the Digital Economy Bill
Stef sez, “As we all know, the UK Digital Economy Bill passed last night. Watching the debates, one of the things that shocked me was the repeated displays of ignorance of the technical and copyright issues by MPs on all sides. The Second, and Third readings are now online at TheyWorkForYou.com. I thought it might be good to use the annotations features to correct some of the more glaring and bizarre howlers. The annotated debates will stand as a record of this sad democratic failure. Remember to keep it polite and technical – MPs are professionally inured to plain abuse – We, the internet, clearly have a job of education to do.”
A guide to the recently passed Digital Economy Bill
The Digital Economy Bill survived the wash up with Tory support and has now been passed. The low turnout at the second reading (6 April; the day the election date was set) and consideration of amendments (7 April) has received heavy criticism. Below is a selection of coverage of and responses to the passing of the Bill, enjoy!
UK Passes Controversial Digital Economy Bill
from Mashable! by Ben Parr
How ACTA will change the world’s internet laws
Since the text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (a secret copyright treaty being negotiated by a members’ club of rich countries, out of sight of the United Nations) leaked, scholars and public interest groups have been poring over its clauses. Here are two alarming pieces of research explaining just how bad this really is:
Facebook and Google Dominate Online Identity War [STATS]
from Mashable! by Jolie O’Dell
Boy Sues Mother For Changing His Facebook Password
A disgruntled Arkadelphia boy is hitting back at his social media savvy mother after she went through his Facebook and posted things that ?involve slander about his personal life?. His preferred method of revenge: litigation. He?s filing charges against her and is requesting a no contact order.
Internet ad revenues hit records quarterly high
The fourth quarter of 2009 hit a record quarterly high of $6.3 billion, a 2.6% increase year-over-year and a 14% increase over the third quarter of 2009, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2009.
China: Most influential most-read blogger
Being the world’s most widely-read blogger seems to have made Han Han a candidate for the 2010 Time 100 list, though a certain amount of selection bias probably isn’t hurting given the other contenders from China this year.
Han’s blog service provider Sina.com ran his nomination as a top feature earlier in the week and many others such as rival QQ have given space to the debate over the degree of Han’s influence; Han himself has posted on the topic, translated here by China Digital Times? Xiao Qiang:
Footage from Wikileaks creates a stir, prompts government blacklisting
Wikileaks may have just been turned the world of journalism upside down. The relatively unknown website recently gained the journalistic spotlight after releasing classified video footage of the war in Iraq taken from an American helicopter who fired upon and killed to Reuters reporters. Upon receiving two million views and a story in the New York Times, Jonathan Stray of Foreign Policy commented upon the website’s new role in journalism.
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