Internet Pirate Bill which will cut off downloaders being rushed through Parliament

The controversial Bill was passed by MPs last night, 189 votes to 47, following its third reading in the House of Commons, after two hours of debate.
It has been processed so speedily as it is being pushed through in the political wash-up process - which takes place between an election being called and Parliament being dissolved.

However, many companies and organisations affected by the Bill, which has caused ripples across the technology world, most notably because of its proposals regarding the suspension of repeat filesharers internet connections and also the measures that will allow politicians to block websites which contain pirated material without primary legislation, have criticised this rushed process.
TalkTalks director of regulation, Andrew Heaney, said the way in which the Bill had passed through the House of Commons had been undemocratic.
Its a bad day for democracy, bordering on disgraceful, when such a complicated bill, which could negatively affect many people, gets shoved through the Commons so quickly. Its an appalling indictment of our democracy that this can happen with a bill which requires a great deal of understanding. Surely our MPs need to scrutinise the Bill for a longer period than two days and take some time over the process like the Lords did.


The ISP has spoken out against the Bills proposed measures for dealing with persistent filesharers since its inception. It has no issue with sending out warning letters to internet pirates as long as the letter is educational in tone, but refuses to be forced by the Government to comply with the technical measures such as capped bandwidth or broadband disconnection The company said: "TalkTalk will continue to battle against these oppressive proposals they will require secondary legislation before they can be implemented.
After the election we will resume highlighting the substantial dangers inherent in the proposalsIn the meantime we stand by our pledges to our customers: Unless we are served with a court order we will never surrender a customer's details to rightsholders. We are the only major ISP to have taken this stance and we will maintain it. If we are instructed to disconnect an account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rights holders.
It will also lobby the Government to reduce the percentage ISPs will be forced to pay to cover the cost of the warning letters- which currently stands at 25 per cent from ISPs and 75 per cent to be covered by rights holders.
The Bill has also faced criticism from internet freedom campaigners, the Open Rights Group, whose executive director Jim Killock said: "This is an utter disgrace. This is an attack on everyone's right to communicate, work and gain an education.
"Politicians have shown themselves to be incompetent and completely out of touch with an entire generation's values. Killock had also been responsible for spear-heading a campaign over the last week which saw over 20,000 voters write to their local MPs lobbying against the Bill being rush through in its current form.
The Pirate Party UK expressed similar concerns about the internet pirate-curbing measures, saying: The law will not stop copyright infringement, it will simply drive it behind encryption and obfuscation techniques, and will effectively criminalise over six million Britons, children, teens and adults alike, all for a protectionist attempt to protect a dying industry.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Internet
• Pirate
• Bill
• which
• will
• cut
• off
• downloaders
• being
• rushed
• through
• Parliament
• piracy

[jagdtiger2006]

Actually most people in Hollywood, dont live in mansions, those that put up the sets, work behind the cameras, dont live in multimillion dollar mansions. They are just middle class working people. If Hollywood cuts back on the movies made, people like Tom Cruise, etc will be fine. Its the "little people" that will get hurt the most

[Lillie1986]

I wonder if theres actualy one single person thats suffering from illegaldownloading. "Taken their livelyhood", oh really, so I guess the mansions and supercars arent enough?

[wrathallll]

i know theres ways round it but........FUCK! leave the internet alone!!!

[3r3turn]

we have this in new zealand total cr@p! not this bad, ISP blocking pirate websites!

[3r3turn]

we have this in new zealand total cr@p!

[marc011287]

...

[spookmore]

This is another of the rothchild and Mandelson plan to control our people,and the argument for it is B/S

[spookmore]

Bullshit this another of controling our people,in the UK