#debill Letter to my MP
With the current digital economy bill looming on the horizon of legality, it’s good to know if your MP voted against or in favour of it. It won’t fix piracy and it will fuck with freedom of information and the concept of Web 2.0
http://theyworkforthebpi.com/ http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/
This is the letter I wrote to my MP who voted in favour of such draconian and anachronistic document, please feel free to copy it and send it to yours if you understand how wrong this new law will be.
I’ve noticed that you voted in favour of the Digital Economy Bill.
If you voted without understanding how truly awful this bill is, without attending the debate or consulting how the Internet even works, I’m really disappointed.
If you voted fully understanding what this bill allows the government (whoever is in charge) and the big corporations to do against the citizens, I’m then really disgusted.
The Digital Economy Bill, not only hands free power to anyone with enough money to shut down any website they want, but is also utterly useless to stop piracy.
Tracking down the IP (which stands for Internet Protocol not Intellectual Property) where a download was made do not help at all finding the “pirate” as the majority of the people don’t have an static IP (meaning that it will change every time they switch on their router)or anyone who wants to download something can fake the IP of another person.
Protecting from IP theft would be incredibly complex, something that cannot be protected by having an antivirus or a password.
Millions of people are going to receive letters from companies asking for money, or cancelling their internet without ever having downloaded any song, movie or program.
On the other hand, with the unlimited power granted to close down websites, freedom of information will suffer, the rich collaboration culture of places like YouTube will suffer and the UK will be locked from the culture of that will be enjoyed around the world by millions.
The only culture we will enjoy will be that which a corporation would sell us.
I don’t pirate movies, I don’t illegally download music, or games or anything for that matter. I work for a video games publishing and I do create content myself. The solution is not banning or punishing “pirates”.
This bill was either an act of irresponsibility driven by a total lack of understanding on how the Internet works or prove that all our Politicians are no more than puppets in the hands of the big corporations.
Please, put the bill to debate again, ask experts on the matter, IT people, creative people, your voters and then debate it properly between all parties but don’t ever pass a bill that can harm the freedom of information of the UK and put us side by side with China again.
Unlike the Afganistan and Irak wars, the war of ideas is capable of changing the future of a country.
If you’re like me, your iTunes music collection will look like a selection of the best grey question marks your computer can generate.
