Posted: 17th Apr, 2010 By: MarkJ
The UK
Liberal Democrat party has told the
Guardian newspaper that they support "
most" of the recently passed
Digital Economy Act but are opposed to the blocking of internet connections and would seek to repeal and replace related clauses with "
something better".
The comments came as clarification to an earlier remark made by party leader Nick Clegg, whom was answering questions put forward by an online student community website -
The Student Room.
Question 6 - Variations asked by The-Wi$e-One, SumTingWong, Tawm, ScoCmac, Repressor, Slam, CompactDestruction, Squirrelbo1, passthelemon,The Magic Manatee:
Will you reconsider the Digital Economy Bill considering the manner it was pushed through, without proper scrutiny, the lack of MPs in attendance at the Bill’s hearing and also taking into account that some ministers have demonstrated considerable lack of technical knowledge on the consequences of the proposed legislation?
Nick Clegg's answer:
"We did our best to prevent the Digital Economy Bill being rushed through at the last moment. It badly needed more debate and amendment, and we are extremely worried that it will now lead to completely innocent people having their internet connections cut off. It was far too heavily weighted in favour of the big corporations and those who are worried about too much information becoming available. It badly needs to be repealed, and the issues revisited."
Strong feelings surround the deeply unpopular act and the party could conceivably win some additional support by siding with consumers and ISPs. However we do note that the position taken above appears to be weaker than the scathing attack launched by Don Foster and the LibDem Department of Culture, Media and Sport late last month (
here).
The latest position also fails to recognise concerns over the impact upon public / open Wi-Fi networks and some of the other technical measures, such as bandwidth throttling, that could be employed against those suspected of repeated unlawful file sharing. Meanwhile a hung parliament looks far more likely and this might place the LibDem's in a position to carry out their promise.