Posted: 30th Apr, 2010 By: MarkJ
The Liberal Democrat Party leader, Nick Clegg, has been voted top of a YouTube UK poll for his video answer to the controversial
Digital Economy Act Bill (DEA). Clegg described "
the way that the [bill] was rammed through Parliament at the last minute" as a "
stitch-up". Sadly Clegg himself did not turn up to vote against it.
All three party leaders were asked for a similar comment on the Act. However it was surprising to see Gordon Brown (Labour) promise that "
when we are re-elected, we will make sure that there is proper debate on all these issues to ensure that people's voices are heard", and pigs may fly.
Meanwhile Cameron continued to speak in support of the rushed agreement he had created with Labour to help push the bill through, saying: "
We had a decision at the end of Parliament: should we try and stop this Bill altogether or should we allow it to go through", and they allowed it.
The "Act" itself threatens to disconnect those "
suspected" of unlawfully downloading copyright files through their broadband ISP. However a reliance on dodgy data and a focus on the connection owner rather than the guilty party could result in innocent users being caught out.
It will also lead to website blocking, which might affect YouTube and other popular sites, and could hamper the ability of anybody to setup a public / open Wi-Fi wireless internet connected network.