An implicit but important part of this bill is that the government now has the power, without judicial oversight, to block links to web sites and pages it deems to be in breach of the Digital Economy act. This effectively means the UK government has the power to control who can link to who on the web. This is an assault on the primary architecture of the web, the functionality of the hyperlink and the capability to link any location to another. This is complementary action to News International raising pay-walls around its online resources.
The UK has no constitution and citizens are subjects of the crown, not independent citizens. They have no constitutional rights protecting things like free speech. The UK¹s archaic legal and constitutional systems have allowed a reactionary and illiberal law to be undemocratically brought into force and it will function to constrain the development of networked and digital media in the UK. Australia has also done this, implementing systems similar to those used in China. Very bad days for the internet. Best Simon Simon Biggs [email protected] [email protected] Skype: simonbiggsuk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ Research Professor edinburgh college of art http://www.eca.ac.uk/ Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice http://www.elmcip.net/ From: marc garrett <[email protected]> Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:32:56 +0100 To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <[email protected]> Subject: [NetBehaviour] UK passes Digital Economy Bill. UK passes Digital Economy Bill. British parliament has passed the Digital Economy Bill by a vote of 189 to 47. The bill covers issues such as online copyright infringement, internet piracy, regulation of TV and radio, the classification of video games and regulations over internet services providers. A new clause allows the secretary of state for business to block websites that have violated copyright. It has been criticised by digital groups who say it has not been discussed for a suitable amoung of time. The bill was passed in a "wash-up" process, which translates to a limited debate on the bill. Popular microblogging site Twitter has already registered protests against it. http://www.newstatesman.com/digital/2010/04/digital-economy-bill-british _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
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