Digital Economy Bill mashup: 40 MPs turned up | Hacker News Reader

Digital Economy Bill mashup: 40 MPs turned up

debillitated.heroku.com

22 pointsmonkeygrinder10 comments

Can anyone explain what this means to people outside of the UK? I don't mean this in a condescending way.. I just really feel ignorant. I'm not sure what an MP is, and I'm not sure what role this whole thing plays in the lives of the English.

There are two houses of Parliament in the UK - the Lords and the Commons. Only the Commons is made up of our elected representatives. The country is broken down into 646 constituencies and each elects their own member of parliament (MP).

The Digital Economy Bill has a decent write up on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Bill

The highlights seem to be: - a three strikes then you're off the internet punishment against piracy which seems to assume guilt until proven innocent. - a real danger than small businesses will find it substantially more difficult to provide wifi for customers.

Beyond the Bill itself there is also a lot of anger over Lord Mandelson who is pushing this Bill. Mandelson is the Business Secretary despite having been forced to resign twice for seriously suspect conduct. There are some questions as to whether he was unduly influenced by the "old media" lobby before the Bill

So what actually happened with the Digital Economy Bill? Did it pass? What are the implications?

I'm surprised that 40 turned up.

that's 40 more than those qualified to talk on the subject

Unfair; some MPs such as Tom Watson are actually clued up and sensible on this Bill.

Unfortunately the majority are happy to let the government pass this law, which infringes civil liberties, harms the digital economy, and is liked by no-one except the corporate interests who wrote it. (Large parts were written by the BPI, Britain's version of the RIAA).

If you're angry at this state of affairs, join the Pirate Party -- http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/

> Unfortunately the majority are happy to let the government pass this law

I'm not sure that's really true. There has been cross-party opposition to some of the obviously draconian measures, and there is also cross-party opposition to the principle of forcing through a bill with so little consensus during washing up.

Unfortunately, this debate did take place a few hours after the general election was officially announced, on the first afternoon of serious campaigning. Funnily enough, most MPs were probably quite busy, and almost all the frontbench representatives of the major parties were doing as many interviews as they could manage on the major news channels at the time.

I'm very much in two minds about the "wash up" period, and the more I see of what is being done via back room deals at the eleventh hour, the more I think Parliament should be dissolved on the same day that the PM requests the Queen do so to avoid these shenanigans.

> I'm not sure that's really true.

The majority either voted for it or abstained. If they thought it was a bad law, they should have voted against; that is after all the job they are paid to do.

Well, obviously (hopefully) I was being a bit facetious. They are qualified to object to Mandy's licence to print legislation. But surely the Great Firewall of Britain and whathaveyou should be stood up to at all levels, you don't need to be a "nerd, fanatic or zealot" to see that (thanks Austin Mitchell for alientating me in one sentence - and you're trying to appeal to me!).

"join the Pirate Party "

> The right to share files provided no money changes hands.

Great, thanks for destroying my livelihood. Where's the funding for the British Film Industry supposed to come from then?

The proposal "right to share files provided no money changes hands" merely brings the law into line with the reality on the ground.

Copyright is dead. (More precisely: certain business models, based on copyright, are dead). People can either accept or reject that fact, it remains true either way.

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