Digital Economy Bill: Wrong and Stupid

So MPs have been debating the Digital Economy Bill which has been rushed through at the fag end of this Parliamentary cycle without proper scrutiny, not that any bill ever gets proper scrutiny - but this one has even less proper scrutiny than all the others ones that have been inadequately scrutinised.

The bill was passed with a majority of 142 votes (189 votes to 47) because Labour MPs, who know they should know better, are essentially a bunch of spineless supine careerists. Which is ironic as many of them are reaching the ends of their careers.

The debate was characterised by people not understanding that if someone illegally downloads a tune that is not a lost sale, nor has someone's property been stolen - it is simply someone extra having access to that tune.

The bill, which brings in legislation to further control the internet, has a number of problems. There are certainly concerns that there may be freedom of speech issues and has a hammer to crack a nut approach, but its main problem is that it assumes guilt and then forces people to prove their innocence - reversing centuries of the legal system.

It means that if your ISP address is one that is thought to be involved in illegal file sharing then your net access could be completely removed. Well, goodbye internet cafes then. Goodbye university web access. Farewell to natural justice as families get cut off because one individual has downloaded a few files. What utter idiocy.

This is a very dangerous piece of legislation which is, of course, their starting point on this issue. Who knows where the next government will take us because both likely contenders for largest party supported the bill.

I'm sure public whip will tell us who voted how on the bill when the info comes through, and you can check out on this site whether your MP showed up or not.