Digital ‘Piracy’ Is NOT the Same as Physical Piracy
Intellectual Property Minister David Lamy shows a similar grasp of the issues around filesharing to Peter Mandelson:
UK Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy gave a speech to the MPAA in Washington DC recently during which he defended Lord Mandelson’s controversial “evolved” plans to disconnect repeat file-sharers from the Internet.
He said the proposal was important in “sending a clear message: when it comes to piracy and infringement, ‘digital is not different.’”
It’s the same sort of 1:1 lost sale nonsense that belies the mounting studies that have concluded the opposite: P2P increases music consumption.
Check out the final link where it shows the research that filesharers buy ten times as much music as they download. Is that really the same as ‘real’ piracy? I don’t think so. And is barring people from the Internet for repeat filesharing, which has hit neither music nor film takings, really the right solution? Finland qualifies Internet access as a human right – what right then should Peter Mandelson have to cut whole families’ access, without even the say-so of a judge or jury? This is continuing spin in the favour of specific corporate interests, and the government should be called for it.
The Digital Economy Bill is a disgusting, illiberal piece of legislation which threatens all of our freedom of speech. It must be stopped, and the first step is by calling it out for what it is.
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I work for the Open Rights Group, who are campaigning against the Digital Economy Bill on the basis that it is unfair and disproportionate.
We’re asking UK citizens to get in touch with their MP and explain to them why the Bill must be stopped, and possibly to meet them at one of their surgeries to discuss the specific problematic points of the Bill in detail.
We believe that visits and letters from voters will help change the minds of MPs currently for the proposals; our representatives will then see that people care about their rights and, as their duty is to vote in accordance with constituents’ opinions, we hope that they will then oppose the Bill.
If you, or your readers, want to know more details about the specific problems picked out by ORG and its supporters, don’t know who your MP is, need help with wording a letter or arranging a meeting with them, drop me an email – katie@openrightsgroup.org – and I’ll do my best to get you the information you need; all you have to do is the talking.
.-= Katie Sutton´s last blog ..This is a debate about legal rights and free speech =-.
Katie, I’ll be delighted to do the talking. I guess we still have time to try to lobby our MPs into voting the worst elements of this down, and I’ll be there on the 24th. What at this stage would it be most useful in your opinion to focus on, should I meet my MP (who disappointingly is a government minister)?