The Digital Economy Bill

[Cheeky_Princess]

Has anyone been following it?
well its been passed now...
BBC News - Anger about digital 'stitch-up'

However, the bill was approved by MPs by a majority of 142 votes and will now pass to the Lords for final approval.

The legislation is one of more than 10 bills being considered by parliamentarians in the "wash-up period" - the remaining time before the legislature is dissolved.

'Repercussions'

Under the terms of the bill, internet service providers will be obliged to send letters to any of their subscribers linked to alleged infringements.

Copyright holders will be able to apply for a court order to gain access to the names and addresses of serious infringers and take action against them while ISPs would be able to suspend accounts of offenders.

Good read and opinion: The Digital Economy Bill: a nightmare of unintended consequences – Telegraph Blogs
I was following it on the parliament channel and i swear half the fucktards had no idea what they were on about or the terminology...
50 or so odd points rushed through an hour....
and it was my frikkin MP that lead this damn bill.. well he ain't getting my vote..
In brief basically now ISP WILL HAVE to block your net if your downloading illegally, after a set of warnings/letters
also sites like youtube/megashare that host copyrighted material could potentially get blocked.... even sites like wikileaks!
its silly i understand the need for it but it should not have been rushed, some points need clarification like public access/library/net cafes... who could be done also..
which prob means less wi-fi hotspots...
one of the MPs goes "what if someone parks outside and uses my wi-fi and downloads illegally.. i'll get done"
my stupid mp goes "We can put passwords on it"
Ever heard of hackers Mr timms?
Anyways thing is though the bill/law will fail if anything we'll all carry on doing what we do but using proxy
but today just showed what a sham of a goverment it is.. Debillitated
i mean 40 of them thats it...
got to say i learnt something today... that MPs don't have to stick around for a debate they can just come and vote when its time for that. frikkin sheep... argh the whole system needs to be reformed....

Bye Bye UK.. Hello China

[Guji-Ji]

If you get the letter, fix up!

But yeah. It'll hit small businesses the worst and that's the saddest thing.

[Spider Pig]

I mean c'mon it's not like they aren't still making mega bucks from the sales of music/films etc. also it allows smaller unknown artists to be heard i.e. if a new artist came about and you haven't heard of them and the industry is putting them down your throats I would probably dl their album and if it's really good I would buy it, I've got hundreds and most of them are classics but some were a waste of money due to hype.

They'll always find ways to make more money off us, tomorrow they will start charging you for your gas levels because the methane is causing global warming, Asians are fucked, it's the end of spices as we know it!

[Zero]

First and foremost, there are ample ways of downloading anything without leading a trail that goes to your ISP. You just have to be clever really. Saying that, it wouldnt be wise to discuss such methods on a public forum, especially since some of them are regarded even for above commercial use.

Secondly, as far as the scene is concerned; Release Groups (razor1911, Core, Paradox, Reloaded etc.) > Topsites > Carriers > Sites > Leechers. I mean the furthest many go on this pyramid is probably "sites", that is is0hun7[dot]c0m or t0rr3n7z[dot]c0m for example, to search for "stuff". I don't know how the legislation in this country works properly regarding freedom of information and being able to "download" whats readily available, but from what I've been told is that it would be stupid for an ISP to send a letter to people downloading petty stuff such as music. The penalty would be hit hard to those that "seed" all the time and those that download like 24 hours a day, weeks on end. Then it becomes blatant to the ISP.

In effect I don't think the average person who downloads stuff occasionally will be hit, it depends what you download and where from.

I just hope the Lords will reject this.

[Iroquois Pliskin]

Some people that do upload files for others regard the internet as a storage space lol. So if anyone does happen to down stuff then its on them not the uploader.

[Cheeky_Princess]

BBC - Democracy Live - House of Lords
being debated now....

[Cheeky_Princess]

The digital economy bill: what made it | Technology | guardian.co.uk
this is prob best read on it..
and this is a good giggle...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Ru8qlQEH0&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Creativity Is The Enemy[/ame]

[Cheeky_Princess]

passed through the lords but check this:
Wow @stephenctimms the minister who lead the #DEBill, thinks IP address stands for Intellectual Property! http://tr.im/UXSd

see what i mean!!!

[Kayz]

I have been following this, i never thought it would happen so fast. Just this morning i checked my ISP's website to see where they stand in all this and whether they will challenge it, because before this bill was even proposed my friend had a letter from 'Talk Talk' telling him that he was caught downloading a music file using a p2p software last year.

He wasnt caught by the ISP but was caught by the music company or some sort of digital body. The digital company requested details of Talk Talk's customer (who was my friend), Talk Talk refused to give out such information of their customers as it breaches the Data Protection act and will not reveal such information to any third party as it is in their agreement with their clients. - They stated that in the letter.

The ISP named the file my friend was downloading, the date and time in the letter which also came as a big suprise to him. However i was also suprised in how the digital company was able to gain access to such information in identifying who was downloading it and from where, - Not the technical know how but the fact that third parties were easily able to see who was downloading what.

The digital company didnt have the name and address of the person other than it lead to a particular ISP. Now it's the ISP's who hold customer details etc which is what the digital company was after. The ISP stated in the letter they were not going to give out such information to protect their customers interests, but was just letting him know of his activity and that they were aware of it, which is a good thing.


The game isnt over yet,

• Barring access to the interent for whatever reason is a breach of our freedom - FACT!,
• Watching our every move is a breach of our freedom - FACT!
• Telling us what we can and cannot do online is a breach of our freedom, - FACT!

It will get even more interesting when ISP's take this bill to court in the best interest of their customers (us) challenging this bill on the grounds of our freedom.

Google has been fighting with China in the last few months over censorship of its search results which the Chinese government has imposed in their search results. Google is fighting for the rights of people in China to be able to access information freely without prejudice.

Yes downloading music illegally is wrong, but to take somebody's internet connection away as punishment is ludicrous. The British government is not what it use to be, just a few weeks ago a dozen or so Gaza protestors were sent into prison serving time for upto 2 years for merely throwing a water bottle at police officers in last years Gaza demonstrations.

God knows what will become of the UK. If they take away people's rights to access the internet for downloading something, sending somebody to prison for two years for simply throwing a water bottle will only result in an uprising and more underground activity against the government (as if it dosent already have enough on its plate). The UK is becoming to sound like China or Iran where you would expect such things. It will only result in people going underground and the Music industry becoming even more exploited along with other stupid laws the UK Government plans to put down.

If they are able to take away our internet access, tomorrow they will be taking away something else. It always starts small to test the waters, soon it's going to hit online video streaming and other similar activities such as online gaming and age restrictions etc.

If an ISP is able to take this up in court on the grouns of our freedom and win, then it will become very profitable as it will win a lot of peoples minds and hearts. Politicians dont know the first thing about computers, their generation is very out dated like their political parties.

However this has its pro's and con's. I can already see a very few people making a lucrative business out of this ban - providing you an underground access to all the music files for a small fee without getting caught. - I already have plans for this.

Home broadband services and providers will be under scrutiny but i doubt commercial lines will be scrutinised in the same way. I believe Commercial and private sector ISP's (which you've never have heard of) will not be affected by this ban. Im talking about broadband speeds which start at 100mbit+ where you pay anything from £60+ onwards per month for broadband speeds.

The likes of itunes, legitimate music websites and other major internet networks use the very same services - the ban dosent affect them for obvious reasons. Remember these are commercial services and not for your every day home user. What if you had access to speeds and services like that with a private ISP knowing that you will not be scrutinised? Sharing of music files then become very easy for a small price - Coming soon to a website near you! lol -

Anyways thing is though the bill/law will fail if anything we'll all carry on doing what we do but using proxy

If your talking about proxy browsers, then this wont work my dear, not for downloading files onto your computer.

Speaking of proxies, people will begin to develop p2p programs which uses a reliable proxy ip address - this will be very easy to create for an average programmer. This will then allow you to download files and music anonymously without your isp even knowing. People in Iran and China are already being barred from accessing certain websites, yet they are able to gain access to the world by simply using proxy browsers - i can see the same being implemented on p2p softwares easily. However speeds will be incredibly slow.


Im not so worried about the ban, however it does concern me.

[Cheeky_Princess]

Good Post.
but yeah talktalk have come out and said this regarding the bill Digital Economy Bill – it’s a wash up | The TalkTalk Blog
sure thats won them constumers but will be intresting to see what other ISP come out...

[Ritz_Crackers]

For everyone on Be Broadband:

"Hi guys

Here's your official update, I'm afraid this is all the info that I'm able to provide:

We receive a large number of requests from third parties for information about members who they believe have infringed their copyright. We do not provide member details unless the third party has obtained a Court Order. If we receive a Court Order, we are legally obliged to provide the members' names and addresses, which match up to certain IP addresses at specific times. Usually, we do not tell members that we have provided their details in this way as this might compromise the third parties' investigation or claim for copyright infringement.

With regards to the recent court orders, these are being processed but won't be completed for several months.

Kind regards
_________________
Louise Kirlew
Head of Member Services"

[Zero]

Sux to be on Be

[Spider Pig]

anyone what stance virgin is taking?

and I'm not talking about virgins standing up against prostitution, I mean virgin media.

[Kayz]

Was reading the Metro this morning, the front page read:

"Internet law may hit the innocent"

Written by John Higginson who quoted Jim Killock, director of campaign group Open Rights who said:

"Its the most farcical, draconian way of trying to enforce copyright law. Website blocking isn't something that happens in democratic societies. It's the kind of thing that happens in China"

Looks like we wont be getting a choice whether we want Chinese or not. We're going to get it any way.

[Spider Pig]

we have chinese law that probably means only one internet pc per family.