UK's Digital Economy Act

As you can see the turn out for the debate was standing room only.....sigh

It seems BT and TalkTalk have lost their case regarding the Act and it will mean ISPs will have to send warning letters to alleged illegal file downloaders, as well as potentially cutting users off.....


This firmly puts the responsibility into the ISP's hands which means they have to police their networks, which means they will have to actively monitor every single user they have, which can mean only one thing.... The cost of having a broadband connection will rise to cover that cost.... 


But what the idiotic politicians don't realise is that once you stop one method of file sharing they will simply develop another method to share music and films, only this time they will make it impossible for anybody to eavesdrop on what they are doing..... Look what happened with Napster ? They then moved to P2P file sharing, they are now moving to magnet links......The politicians will simply drive file sharing underground and there will be a massive subculture, sharing just as much as they used to but under the protection of hard encryption.... and the thing is how does an ISP distinguish between an encrypted bit of information and a violation of the UK's Digital Economy Act ? 


The simple truth is they can't... which is why this whole Digital Economy Act is a load of utter tripe, all it will do is get innocent parents in trouble with the law when their 10 year old kid decides to download the latest film and they will be pounced on by the ISP because they are upholding the law. Meanwhile the hardened filesharers will be blissfully sharing away underneath the detectable breaches of copyright in a darkened netherworld of encryption and push button privacy. Fortunately I've blocked all such activity on our home network and encrypted our connection, I've also done the same with my parents connection, just so they won't be taken advantage of once all this kicks in.


I sometimes wonder how politicians get to be politicians, do they have to prove how stupid and idiotic they are before a committee before they are allowed to practice politics ?


What does concern me is that all the broadband users who have open WiFi connections and have no idea what encryption is let alone why they are getting letters stating they are infringing copyright ? It opens up a whole new can of worms, but apparently ignorance is a crime in the digital economy act, an open WiFi connection is no excuse apparently.


Whilst I am all for artists protecting their work and making a living from it, the digital economy act is akin to trying to close Pandora's box.... but its been opened and there is no putting things back or trying to bolt the gate after the horse has gone.... 


While ever people have the ability to copy music or films they will, it's not even considered particularly bad these days if you do copy a film or music.... until people are made to feel like its shoplifting or smash and grab any policies or laws put in place simply will not work, end of.......


In the meantime we continue to be watched and controlled..... the backlash off this will be huge..... just watch what happens.......