Digital Love

If you are looking for a single reason to challenge the current political system in this country then you only have to look at the way the Digital Economy bill was passed through parliament last night. This is a piece of legislation which takes away your right to be innocent until proven guilty if your internet connection is suspected of being used for file sharing. It will now be our responsibility to prove we weren’t. This leaves us all at the mercy of the entertainment industries legal representatives when they decide to accuse us of infringement. I couldn’t afford thousands of pounds worth of legal fees and I doubt many people could and will be forced to pay them the nominal fees they ask for. There is also the fact that the woolly wording of the bill also leaves the opportunity to block websites which may have intent to supply illegal material. Sounds good a t first but then you realise that could be anything from Google and Youtube to whistleblowing sites such as wikileaks. In fact anything the Government feels is detrimental to the Government, maybe they could borrow the software from China.

So far, so annoyed. They also snuck in there the small fact that the analogue radio signal will be turned off thus rendering 100 million radios useless and everyone requiring a much more energy intensive digital DAB radio.

How was this passed you ask? It was passed at 2330 on a Wednesday night in front of around 50 MPs who debated the merits and twice as many sat in the bar until it came time for them to put down their G and T’s and go in and vote for the party line. Our elected representatives working hard for us once again, even after 20,000 people felt aggrieved enough to write to their MP’s about the bill. This is why our electoral system is broken.

When you vote in four weeks time remember how little the three main parties represent the general public and much they favour their business partners and sponsors.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="Democracy in action"][/caption]

Dear Tom

Tom Levitt is standing down as High Peak Mp at the General Election this year so this is probably the last letter I'll send to him. Its like the end of an era.

Dear Tom Levitt,

I am writing to you about the upcoming Digital Economy Bill which appears to be being rushed through before Parliament is disolved before the General Election. I feel that this piece of legislation is detrimental to the Public and should be thoroughly examined and debated by the elected representatives of the country and not left to The Government and front Bench MP's to oversee what appears to be a piece of legislation that is to the benefit of the large media companies rather than the good of the public.

There are many sections of the bill which are contentious but I will focus on the one area I find to be exceptionally unacceptable, the area of having your internet connection cut off for alleged file sharing of copyrighted media. This is a clause which has been dictated by the media companies to include and defies the main principles of the law in this country of being innocent until proven guilty. This has been included because it is so difficult to prove that someone has been file sharing copyrighted media. If it is so difficult to prove by huge corporations with unl;imited amounts of money how will teh ordinary memebr of public prove that they haven't been file shairng. Wirless internet is in common use across the country and it is exceptionally easy to bypass security on these systems.

What right have the media corporations to dictate the legislation of this country and to threaten us with disconnection because they have failed to adapt to a changing media and market. I urge you to ensure that this bill gets teh scrutiny it deserves and the contentious clauses that benefit the big media companies and not the General Public are removed.

An interent connection is not a fundamental human right in teh same way that walking, reading or posting a letter isn't. Our rights are being eroded at the request of big businesses and it should not be allowed to pass with out contest.

Yours sincerely.