The Open Rights Group (ORG) informs us that 10,000 UK citizens have written to MPs in less than three days to demand a debate on the controversial Digital Economy Bill (DEB). The DEB seeks to combat internet copyright infringement (downloading of illegal music etc.) but its proposed solutions, such as website blocking and broadband ISP disconnection for "suspected" abusers, have caused serious concern.Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights group, said:
"It is outrageous that corporate lobbyists including the BPI, FAST and UK Music are demanding that MPs curtail democracy and ram this Bill through Parliament without debate.
The British people did not elect UK Music and the BPI to write our laws. How dare they push our MPs towards punishing innocent people by disconnecting them from the internet, without proper democratic scrutiny?
That is what is making our 10,000 supporters so angry – pushing this Bill through without debate is undemocratic and dangerous."
"It is outrageous that corporate lobbyists including the BPI, FAST and UK Music are demanding that MPs curtail democracy and ram this Bill through Parliament without debate.
The British people did not elect UK Music and the BPI to write our laws. How dare they push our MPs towards punishing innocent people by disconnecting them from the internet, without proper democratic scrutiny?
That is what is making our 10,000 supporters so angry – pushing this Bill through without debate is undemocratic and dangerous."
The news comes on the same day that YouTube, which many fear could be under threat from the bill, revealed that Viacom had deliberately "roughed up" uploaded videos to make them look stolen or leaked; thus helping its copyright case against the free and popular video sharing website.
Those MPs who cast aside fears that websites like YouTube could be blocked should pay attention. Viacom has accused YouTube of "massive intentional copyright infringement" and is waiting for a court to rule on its £660m suit against the site.
A Viacom statement said:
"YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube's founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement. By their own admission, the site contained 'truckloads' of infringing content."
"YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube's founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement. By their own admission, the site contained 'truckloads' of infringing content."
The stark reality is that if you look deep enough then any video could potentially contain sounds or imagery that one might consider to be copyright of somebody else. The irony for many people is that they are also places where you can discover new talent and creations, without which Rights Holders might actually find themselves being considerably worse off.
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Comments: 13
Scott DeaganPosted: 19 March, 2010 - 2:51 PM
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Another stark reality is that Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) will be the method used to identified Internet connections being used to download pirated content. Not only will DPI "look for" pirated music and videos, but it will also "look at" your emails and browsing habits. Those who control DPI will be able to build digital personas/profiles of citizens based on Internet usage. The information accumulated will be invaluable - friends, family, likes, dislikes, fears, political preference, sexual fantasies and orientation etc...
The serious offenders who download movies illegally are already one step ahead of the game - they're migrating to (or already have migrated to) undetectable ways of file sharing, such as VPNs, secure proxies, P2P clients that use encryption, the TOR protocol etc.
In the near future the use of encryption will be regulated and restricted.
StevePosted: 19 March, 2010 - 2:55 PM
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"In the near future the use of encryption will be regulated and restricted."
I'll need to borrow your tinfoil hat.
"The irony for many people is that they are also places where you can discover new talent and creations, without which Rights Holders might actually find themselves being considerably worse off."
Nobody pays for anything, how can they be worse off?
The law is long over due, finally something to deter the anti-social parasites who think artists should work for them for free.
Grow up, kiddies.
Scott DeaganPosted: 19 March, 2010 - 3:18 PM
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Wow Steve, your compelling rebuttal has made me change my mind. You got me - I'm wearing a "tin foil hat"...
Do you honest believe that after spending 500 million (most likely 3 times more) only to find DPI can't inspect encrypted packets that the government and creative industry lobbyists are simply going to look at each other and say "Oh well, we gave it our best shot"? Perhaps you don't remember when the US government (in conjunction with the NSA) tried to shovel the Clipper chip and the concept of "Key Escrow" down our throats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip
There are too many artists out there creating awful music and then expecting to be rewarded with truck loads of cash and feeling robbed when they are not. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.
I hope I can grow up and be just like you Steve - ignorant (it must be bliss).
JPosted: 19 March, 2010 - 5:34 PM
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People making music, video, as amateurs or pro's spend plenty of money with manufacturers of all kinds of products and services. Just because we are being creative - I do this sort of thing as a tutor in mental health projects - that doesn't mean we aren't doing business.
It's got little to do with quality, the principles behind copyright and royalty payments should stand - fair division of profits.
MarkJPosted: 19 March, 2010 - 5:45 PM
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Nobody pays for anything, how can they be worse off?
Steve you completely missed the point there. I myself have heard music on YouTube that I didn't even know existed before and have then proceeded to go out and buy new tracks. Sites such as YouTube are a bit like the modern equivilants of radio stations.
Mark CPosted: 20 March, 2010 - 11:00 AM
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It'll be a great day when Steve gets a letter from his ISP informing him of downloading copyrighted material only because of the fact some kid hacked his WiFi, or his Internet Service Provider dished out an IP address for him used by a previous downloader.
Of course with this new bill he's guilty!, until he can prove himself innocent.
DodgerPosted: 20 March, 2010 - 2:43 PM
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Nothing to do with quality? Nice work if you can get it.
Imagine an electrician installing faulty wiring. Would you be happy to pay him for his shoddy work? Would you be prepared to pay him every time you turned a light on, or any electical device that utilised the work he'd put in? Of course you wouldn't. Even if the work was top notch you'd pay him once and that would be it. You'd pay the electric company for the electricity you consumed, regardless of "product". So why should rightsholders expect to be paid for work done 25, 50, or as they're currently pushing for ... 95 years ago?
DodgerPosted: 20 March, 2010 - 2:44 PM
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And here's another very salient point that the music industry refuse to acknowledge.
Sound clips give publicity to songs, songs give publicity to CDs/albums. It could be argued that sound clips, songs, CDs/albums all give publicity to the artist, but let's stay with sound clips. Name me one other industry that expects to be paid for advertising their product?
LFPosted: 20 March, 2010 - 11:36 PM
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Take some action....
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/extremeinternetl
AlastairPosted: 21 March, 2010 - 8:29 AM
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I'm suspicious of anything this govt. pushes through and like a previous contributer, I too have downloaded youtube videos and then gone out and bought the tracks. I'd never have bought otherwise. The same with movies, watch a few uploaded scenes and go out and buy. Why would you buy a car without test driving it? The BPI should be disbanded and prohibited from reforming, they've done nothing for the so called starving artists. I'm a writer/content producer and to be honest, I don't care about illegal downloads. While you're reading my stuff you aren't reading someone else's stuff. This is an attempt by the BPI and others to seize control of the Internet and our lives. Suspected file sharers? I seriously worry about that one, it will be a case of guilty until proven innocent, if ever. This does nothing for artists and everything for the BPI and co. Democracy first!
AllanPosted: 21 March, 2010 - 9:54 AM
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We must stop internet censorship
21st March 2010
If you are a British resident then I urge you to go to
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/ and sign the
petition against the Digital Economy Bill because amongst other things it
allows the government to force your ISP to spy on you and block any
web sites the government desires.
thesax489Posted: 21 March, 2010 - 10:03 AM
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the uk mps are the biggest most dishonest pirates there is just look to the expenses they claim thousands and thousands in our money for doin sweet f*** all then scream blue murder cos they got caught ha ha ha to them long live p2p isp should tell the government to put there house in order first
maybe we should all ask our mps under freedom of information to inspect there pcs to see if they are legit bet 90% of em download
JanetPosted: 3 April, 2010 - 6:02 AM
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I think youtube is a great tool for anyone interested in watching or uploading videos. I have been using the site for years now, and still think it is doing a good job. Ok, so sometimes it gets criticized for being too easy to break copyright laws, but youtube's online security is getting better. The best thing about the site is its great <a href="http://www.dozenvideo.com">video search</a> engine and database. No wonder it made it as the top sharing site on http://www.dozenvideo.com this month. But there's some tough competition out there and as online video gets bigger and bigger, there's sure to be a backlash. Keep online videos free and easy to share!
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