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!
