Random Arrows

8th April 2010

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6 reasons #debill should scare you

So the Digital Economy Bill passed the House of Commons last night and - assuming the House of Lords don’t reject it - will soon become law.

So what? Is it all just a storm in a teacup?

After all, while many people have downloaded pirated music, films or TV surely it’s right that the Government should try to protect the work of struggling artists, right?

Here are 6 reasons why #debill should scare an sensible person living in Britain…

1) The government now has the power to block access to a website if someone claims it breaches their copyright or if it might breach anyone’s copyright in the future

OK. So, let’s get this straight - this means PirateBay can be banned, right? Well what’s so bad about that?

Sure, it also means the following sites could be banned:

Wikileaks
Youtube
Google (hey, isn’t that what China did?)
Every national newspaper (do you think they clear every use of the Nike logo?)
Mumsnet (can you guarantee nobody will post something which breaches copyright?) .. oh and every other forum you can think of
Facebook
Greenpeace (Nestle recently got a Greenpeace video banned from YouTube over copyright - do you think they wouldn’t try to ban access to Greenpeace’s site if they could)
Every single blog that writes about the FedEx logo and shows an image.

Now, I’m not saying the next government would ban all these sites - but they could if they wanted and that’s the point. Sooner or later, if a government has the power to do something they’ll use it.

2) If a website might put pirated content on in the future, it can be blocked.

Now - just to be clear. We’re not just talking about actual, proven cases of copyright infringement. We’re not even talking about alleged cases of piracy.

Any website that is deemed likely to commit a crime in the future can be blocked.

I’m just going to repeat that…

Any website that is deemed likely to commit a crime in the future can be blocked.

So, the government can block a website that hasn’t even done anything, because it thinks it might do it in the future.

Anyone seen Minority Report?

That is like locking up all young black men because some nutter thinks they’re likely to knife someone in the future.

Again, just think about it for a second. The government now thinks it has the right to ban websites because of things it thinks they might do in the future. And it thinks it has the ability to predict the future.

If that’s not a dangerous precedent, I don’t know what is.

3) If someone uses your Internet connection to download pirated content you are responsible.

So…

If you run a B&B or a pub and offer wi-fi to your customers - you get fined if they download some music off a Peer-to-peer site.
If you run a small business and one of your employees decides to watch some clips of Family Guy on YouTube during their lunch hour you get fined.
If a neighbour uses your wifi to download some movies you get fined (The government minister presenting the bill said “put a password on”, clearly not understanding that wi-fi can be hacked)
If your kid looks at Facebook (do you KNOW how much content is on Facebook that uses other people’s logos, images etc?) and the government decides that something they were looking at breaches copyright then .. you guessed it you get fined.

Oh, and you might not just be fined. You could have your Internet connection cut off altogether.

4) You are guilty until proven innocent

If someone who claims to be a copyright owner tells Ofcom (who will be in charge of this) that you’ve been breaching their copyright, then:

They are presumed to actually be the copyright owner
You are presumed to be acting illegally
You have to pay for any appeal (Hmm .. wonder how a big business could use this to harass people?)
No account is taken of fair use, commentary etc.

Piracy happens. It’s a fact.

But copyright isn’t as simple as the government claims.

For example, this blog could be banned. I put up a post recently with a doctored KitKat wrapper. Under UK law, I can claim this was fair use - I’ve got a right to comment on Nestle and make a satire / criticism.

However, under #debill Nestle could (and I’ve no doubt will - see what they did to Greenpeace on YouTube) apply to have sites like this simply blocked. No fair use. No right to criticize a multinational company.

What about if a big business claims that a competitor’s logo looks similar to theirs and breaches their copyright? Simple - get the site pulled!

Anyone remember Magna Carta?

5) People are collectively punished

So, I’m a freelance web designer that works from home. Without the Internet, I can’t make any money.

Let’s say my girlfriend decides to download some pirated music.

I get fined and my Internet access gets cut off.

How’s that fair? If my girlfriend steals a hat from New Look I don’t go to prison!

What if some student downloads a pirated copy of Photoshop. Is it fair to punish the whole university for one student’s actions? If that student was caught drink driving would every other student and professor have their driving license taken away?

6) Internet access is fast becoming a human right

People pay their taxes online. They collect their pensions online. Newspapers are expected to online only in the near future.

Internet access isn’t the luxury it once was, it’s becoming a fundamental right of a citizen in a Western economy. Without the Internet you can’t access essential services.

Part of the process

What was especially worrying about the “debate” on the Digital Economy Bill is that the MPs who bothered to turn up (40 at the peak) clearly didn’t - with one or two notable exceptions - understand the basics of the Internet and how it works. I’m not expecting every MP to be able to write Reg Ex, but is it too much to ask that they know how you’d go about getting broadband? How can people who clearly don’t know that a password can be hacked be expected to create laws to govern the Internet?

And plenty’s already been said about the shambles of a process the MPs followed and their contempt for democracy.

I’m not saying that the Government has not right to legislate to help cut down on piracy, but #debill is not the way to do it.

Oh, and before anyone says “Oh but Piracy is hurting the creative industries” - check your facts.