UK's Anti-File-Sharing Bill Could "Breach Human Rights" 119
Grumbleduke writes "The UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights has recently reported on the controversial Digital Economy Bill, which seeks to restrict the connections of anyone accused of infringing copyright using the Internet. According to the BBC, the committee noted the lack of details in the Bill as it stands, asking for 'further information' from the government on several issues. They also raised concerns that some punishments under the bill could be 'applied in a disproportionate manner' and said that the powers the bill granted to the Secretary of State (i.e. Lord Mandelson) were 'overly broad.' These echo the concerns raised in recent months by the Open Rights Group, a consortium of web companies including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and eBay, as well as the UK's Pirate Party. The Bill is currently being scrutinized by the House of Lords, and if it passes there, will likely be forced through the Commons quickly, despite the opposition from the public, industry and members of parliament. The committee's full report can be found on the parliament website."
Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't believe governments are spending so much time and effort going after file sharing. The types of punishment being proposed are also completely out of proportion. Why not spend this much effort going after other widespread crimes such as rape and human trafficking? Also, shouldn't the government be spending a lot more time worrying about environmental damage and climate change? Our futures are at stake, yet the biggest problem seems to be people exchanging bits on the Internet.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Priorities (Score:4, Insightful)
They have a "solution" to that, which is to use it as a stick to motivate ID card systems. The New Labour government mindset sadly seems to be "We could fix everything if only we had more power and fewer of these inconvenient checks and balances!". I don't expect the Tories to be better though; I think the Tories have said they'll scrap the ID cards but I'm betting that'll be a marketing exercise on some level. They might get delayed / repurposed / renamed but I can't see them going away once there's been money spent and momentum built up within the civil service (not to mention once electioneering is over).
Could "Breach Human Rights" (Score:3, Insightful)
You want rights? Alright - the day we defeat Eastasia, we'll start thinking about rights. Ooops, my mistake - Eastasia is our ally this month, it's Eurasia we have to defeat!
Buncha whiney sissies, who needs rights anyway?
Re:Priorities (Score:1, Insightful)
Why not spend this much effort going after other widespread crimes such as rape and human trafficking?
Because the victims of rape and human trafficking aren't usually rich enough to buy politicians, which is what you have to do for the government not to consider you subhuman.
Re:Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't expect the Tories to be better though
I think that's a fair call. Every UK government in my lifetime -- and I'm no spring chicken -- has fought hard to increase it's own power, to limit the power of the population and to remove checks and balances on its actions. Irrespective of political party. This is something that I don't believe can be solved through the ballot box, because whoever wins the election will be handed enough power to be sure of corrupting them.
Re:Priorities (Score:3, Insightful)
This is truer of the US than the UK. The only thing the US exports is intellectual property and military equipment - IT stuff and media products like films and music.
(Chalmers Johnson calls the military a makework program with a giant foothold in places where manufacturing jobs disappeared and local reps have no choice but to give their constituents a Lockheed plant. )
Re:The best outcome might be... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's certainly the issue that get us the most publicity, but as party leader, I'd be much much happier if the Pirate Party UK helped to change the bill for the better.
There are some insanely draconian powers in the bill as it currently stands, it sidesteps the right to a fair trial, and the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. It also makes the owner of a wifi access point punishable for allegations of copyright infringement, rather than being considered a common carrier, which will mean the end of free wifi in the UK.
Re:Priorities (Score:1, Insightful)
No It's the same here in the UK, we sell military equipement, corruptly (BAE), and have the uncanny ability to make TV shows that cost buttons to make yet make huge profits (American Idol).
We also make erm.....
Re:Priorities (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Priorities (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Corruption.. (Score:4, Insightful)
OK, I am going to have to stop you there with some reality. The Tories are cut from the same idiotic market fundamentalist cloth you are, sure, but that doesn't translate into smaller government, or economic success. Your neoliberal ideas are unmitigated bullshit.
Take Thatcher for instance: she came to power with a monetarist agenda, which almost immediately crippled the already struggling economy - and this was despite substantial oil revenues coming into the country at the time she took power. The only reason someone so blatantly incompetent was re-elected in 1983 was because she cynically manipulated nationalist sentiment over the Falklands war, and because the left were divided at the time. Much of the rest of her premiership was spent fudging her horrific economic record (lying about the whole monetarist thing, reducing unemployment stats by shifting people onto incapacity who didn't warrant it), ordering extrajudicial killings, and allowing the government budget to increase (which it had to in order to prop up the damaged economy she created. That is the actual economic record of your beloved Tories.
Oh, and trying to equate your economic ideas to those of political freedom is asinine. Business faces fewer regulations in China (hence the lead paint and shit) but that country is clearly less free than anywhere in Western Europe.
It's inherent in the word "govern" (Score:4, Insightful)
This will change only when we stop accepting that we and our fellow human beings need to be controlled - to be "govern"ed - by some external force, and we each consciously take on our individual responsibility to contribute to society and create a new form of social organization.
The increasing power of government is exactly like the increasing pain of an untreated disease - its purpose is to do whatever is necessary to get the organism to wake up and respond. As long as the organism ignores the symptom, the only chance for healing is for the disease to increase the pain. The symptom is never the problem. Ignoring the symptom is the problem. The symptom is the call to heal.
So from a holistic or systemic view we can see the increase in the power (and abuses) of government is actually humanity's way of trying to call attention to our real illness: the unresponsiveness, and most accurately the unconsciousness, of the rest of the body politic - i.e., each of us.
Our only choice is whether we hear the call and respond.
Re:Priorities (Score:3, Insightful)
I would challenge that such a large part of the economy is really made up of creative works, but a quick google search did not provide me an adequate chart.
In any case, curbing piracy inside the US will do the US economy no good no matter how large a portion is based on 'intellectual property'. There is zero net gain in wealth, it just moves around from one content producer to another and in the end no net wealth is created and the value of the goods is questionable and subjective. What really matters in terms of wealth is if the US can export things to other countries in exchange for wealth. More importantly, can they build something of worth.
Now I'm not saying there is no value in arts and entertainment. But when you build a tractor, a year later you still have a tractor that can be used to keep a farm running or build a nation. When Brittany Spears and entourage make a music video, a year later you have a piss poor excuse for a washed out overplayed shitty tune and a less attractive drugged up woman who shaves her head and shows her snatch. The obnoxious tune ain't gonna put food on your table or a roof over your head and has probably lost any monetary 'value' as well.
Sure there's lots of 'intellectual property' of the engineering kind which can have a great positive and lasting impact on a society and even great art which can be used to fight oppression and disseminate fundamental truth. However I'm of the thinking that it should be shared freely and open to collaboration a la Linux kernel rather than patented forever; and that kind of tech sure as hell ain't coming out of Hollywood and the music industry. Even if sometimes science loosely follows science fiction.
The problem is that we've been sold this globalization bullshit like it was going to be good for us. It's not good for us, it tends to lower us to the average standard of living around the world while bringing some other areas out of the gutter. All the while leaving us with Feudalism 2.0 where a mixture of corporatism and big brother style government creates an elite group of families as the new aristocracy.
What's the solution? Screwed if I know, but I know that it is not giving in to the new stratospheric upper class and letting them further establish their fiefdoms. I'm sure it has something to do with fighting the centralization of power, bringing things back to a nationalist focus and implementing Austrian school economics and a fully functional free market system. Just remember that the more you decentralize power and bring it back to within your reach geographically, socially, physically and in other ways; the more you empower yourself to take control of your own life. And that is how it should be. Any time you feel like you're not in control of your life something is probably very wrong.