Digital Economy Bill Passed In the UK 384
Grey Loki writes "The UK government forced through the controversial digital economy bill with the aid of the Conservative party last night, attaining a crucial third reading – which means it will get royal assent and become law – after just two hours of debate in the Commons."
It was a farce... (Score:5, Interesting)
Everyone that watched the debate last night was pretty horrified at how broken the "wash up" process was, and how obviously this bill was pushed through by the front benches without the support of the backbench MPs present. Labour were responsible for 97% of the MPs that gave a yes vote, because those Labour MPs that didn't would have faced severe consequences, perhaps even eviction from the party. Some rebel Labour MPs did vote against, Tom Watson leading them, this guy deserves serious respect for standing up for what he believes despite the pressure.
The election is coming and we need to take away power from these corrupt parties (the other two major parties are hardly blameless, although the Liberal Democrats did at least vote against). Support the Open Rights Group and also support the Pirate Party UK who are currently raising money to field candidates. You can donate to the Pirate Party here if you are so inclined: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/party/donate/ [pirateparty.org.uk]
My MP voted for the bill, so I'm going to vote against in the next election, I'd urge people to do the same, find out if your MP voted and which way by going here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/32.htm#hddr_2 [parliament.uk]
Just look at this bloody room... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It was a farce... (Score:5, Interesting)
You can also read our manifesto [pirateparty.org.uk] and see a list of our PPCs [pirateparty.org.uk] -- maybe we're running a candidate in your area?
Re:It was a farce... (Score:2, Interesting)
Can the MP's be accused? (Score:5, Interesting)
And their families, their friends, their secretaries, their PA's?
They need to feel the pinch of this insane law. And fast.
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
So does Parliment not have the equivalent of a quorum call? Many institutions require at least half the voting members to be present to pass something, if any of the voting members present asks for a quorum check.
Tragic would be an apt way to describe it (Score:5, Interesting)
Essentially, from what I read (correct me if something changed in the final bill), a copyright holder can accuse you of pirating anything without evidence, and your provider must throttle/disconnect you. If you want to counter, you have to take me to court, at your cost, with real evidence that you didn't.
This is so mind bogglingly dumb I can't begin to fathom how they plan to enforce this without mass disconnections. Huge numbers of people with open APs or just kids in the house are going to find themselves without internet access. Antipiracy firms will make mistakes about IPs, but hey- it doesn't matter when you require no evidence.
Still, I was discussing it with many people last night who were "thankful that they were not British". Stuff like this is closer than we think with ACTA being pushed behind closed doors.
Re:Hmm (Score:1, Interesting)
Can someone explain this to us unfamiliar with British law & politics: out of all 646 MPs, only 189 + 47 == 236 of them voted Y/N? That's only 36.5% of them. What about the rest? All abstained from voting?
How on earth is this supposed to be a working and legitimate democracy, when a bill can be passed with over 63% of voters not fucking care?
Re:It was a farce... (Score:5, Interesting)
More importantly, the Liberal Democrats are heavily pushing electoral reform, and have been for several decades. Now the two major parties are looking like they will accept it after the next election too. In my constituency, labour won the last election by about 10% of the popular vote. Their old candidate is standing down and they are dropping in someone who just lost his seat and was one of the worst offenders in the expenses scandal, so it seems pretty unlikely that they will win next time. Conservatives only got 16% last time, but the Lib Dems look like they've got a chance, and I only mildly disagree with them.
I agree much more with Plaid Cymru and the Green Party, but between them they only got 8.7% of the votes last time. Neither stands a chance of getting in this time, so a vote for them would be wasted. Meanwhile, Plaid has around a quarter of the Welsh EU parliament and Welsh Assembly seats. With a proportional representation system, a vote for them would be worthwhile. With an STV or AV system, I could vote for them first and Lib Dems second.
I don't especially want to vote for the Lib Dems, but I do want to vote against Labour and the Conservatives. Hopefully this time we can get a hung parliament and the Lib Dems can push through some electoral reforms. Then I can vote for a party that I actually want next time.
Time to get an Always-On VPN Service (Score:2, Interesting)
My employer offers a home VPN service whereby I am always connected to our VPN and egress at various points around Europe. They don't particularly monitor this traffic and even provide on-net mirrors to most GNU/Linux distributions and run internal bittorrent trackers for legitimate internal filesharing.
I think I'm going to use that.
It's becoming quite sad when I'll trust my employer more than I will my ISP to keep me safe. Years gone by the idea of letting my connection filter through the corporation was horrifying. Now it's almost liberating.
It's a sad day for the UK.
Re:Yup (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem for the politicians is that it doesn't really matter what laws they pass. They'll never find a way now to completely prevent me gaining internet access and downloading or accessing whatever I want.
Christ, even people in our jails keep managing to find their way online with smuggled smartphones and stuff.
This news really sucks, but ultimately it's just another battle the content industry thinks they've won, but have completely and utterly lost. Each time this happens I decrease the amount of content like DVDs I buy, and simply to make a point, I'm now decreasing it to none, and shall download all the content I'd otherwise consume instead. If the political process is this far fucked (I actually watched the stich up last night) then, well, fuck the political process.
Really, they wonder why so many people don't vote, and so many vote for extremists whilst completely and utterly ignoring reasoned debate, peaceful political activisim such as writing your MPs en-masse, providing evidence that demonstrates why the laws are unquestionably flawed and so forth? If you leave people with the choice of apathy towards politics or supporting extremism to get their voice heard then it's no wonder people who want their voice heard flock to the growing far right. The rise of the far right in the UK is squarely on Labour and the Tories shoulders, they are entirely without question to blame for the situation the UK is in right.
They should be utterly ashamed of themselves that despite being caught en-masse as being completely and utterly corrupt this past couple of years stealing from the public coffer, despite seeing a massive rise in support of the far right (UKIP and the BNP), they still haven't learnt their lesson in the slightest. They're still pursuing a path of ignoring the populace, taking bribes, focussing entirely on self interest and so forth. Honestly, the death penalty wouldn't even be good enough for politicians so utterly willing to sell out their country and it's citizens and causing so much misery in the process for their own personal gain.
As much as I dislike the DEB being passed, I could care less about it because it has zero actual effect on me, and will only harm innocent people- hopefully enough to make them start caring and actually fight back. What fucks me off is the blatant and rampant corruption amongst British politicians, and the way the British political landscape is so utterly fucked, that for many, the far right is the only way to make themselves heard and even that's still not enough for many politicians. It's utterly wrong, people should be heard without having to support extremism, or themselves being rich enough to find money to bribe politicians.
I don't advocate voting BNP or UKIP for one minute, they're the scum of the earth, but christ, I'm beginning to see now why so many people resort to them nowadays with the feeling of helplessness and lack of voice the British political system leaves people with.
Re: Correct. Almost all Conservative MPs abstained (Score:3, Interesting)
It's obviously not an issue that the Conservatives feel strongly about, otherwise all of them would have been told to turn up and vote in a particular way.
Therefore, the Conservative leadership did help this bill to pass, by doing nothing to block it. The headline is accurate.
That reminds me of something. Let me think. Oh yes, it's the Conservative voting record, where they supported every nasty little illberal and authoritarian thing that Labour wanted during the last decade. Some "opposition" they are.
Dixie Chix (Score:3, Interesting)
Try and get air time. You can't. That's control of the delivery channels. When Prince broke with the labels, he disappeared, no air time. The labels need a monopoly on the delivery channels to prevent real music. The way the media shutdown Dixie Chix over politics [wsws.org] is a lesson in both the level of control and of the political nature of today's media.
A new paragraph or sentence would make clear that the RIAA / MPAA whine about reviews is a separate item.
Re:Yup (Score:3, Interesting)
I think you have to try. If you don't make the small effort to put your slip in the ballot box then I think you also throw away your moral right to complain about who gets in. Unless you are confined to bed with a serious illness then it is sheer idleness not to try. Post a spoiled ballot if you must: they provide amusement to the tellers and returning officers.
I rarely get to see the candidate that I want elected, and nearly always have to vote tactically. However, it seems that the UK electorate is sophisticated enough to overcome many of the superficial problems of the first-past-the-post system, by voting to stop the least-wanted candidate getting in.
I always vote the best way I can whenever I have the opportunity.
I've even spent some time as an election observer.
I think it's important to support the system that gives you the right to vote.
And I think that the major parties see the elections as a set of polls that really matters. Suppose we have a hung parliament or one where no side has a large majority, but a lot of people for example voted Pirate, do you think that the parties wouldn't bend their policies at all?
Rgds
Damon
Re:Yup (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is, Labour have a majority of around 14,000 here.
Even if my entire village voted for the next closest candidate, it still wouldn't matter, because he has the mining villages for life.
I do vote still, but I feel it's pointless, because my vote is no different to having no vote whatsoever.
I'm very pro-EU because as the EU is based on PR, despite the fact my vote in the European elections is diluted amongst a few hundred thousand people that's still a vote that actually has some value.
It's sad that I can affect UK policy slightly through European elections, but not in the slightest through our very own national elections. The Conservative, UKIP and BNP's position on Europe seems quite laughable to me in this respect, because they talk of removing power from Brussels back to the UK, but ironically, this would actually give me LESS of a say in my own country. How fucked up is that, that I have to rely on Brussels for any say whatsoever in my own country? and how sad is it that the nationalist ideology behind bringing power back from Brussels actually just means more power for politicians, and less for citizens stuck in areas where they don't support the winning candidate (safe seats) - i.e. the majority of the population, 67% last election in fact.
Re:Yup (Score:3, Interesting)
I did. However, the fact that you guys endorse bullying cunts like Eric turned me, and plenty of other people, off. So, fuck you. If you were running in my constituency, I wouldn't vote for you. I'm voting Lib Dem.
I still support the global Pirate Party movement, but the PPUK is run by a bunch of assholes. It's a shame, but I don't consider it representative of the pirate movement.
You, Peter, are one of the guys I hold responsible. If you gave a shit about new people's views not being shouted down and considered character assassinations a relatively negative thing, you'd have been calling for the expulsion of scum like Eric from the party. So screw you, too.