Archive for the digital economy bill Tag

Journalism is not a zero-sum game

Last Friday I took part in a debate organised by UNESCO to promote World Press Freedom Day (full video here). Lined up to argue in support of the motion that “Unregulated political comment online helps the democratic process” were Sunny Hundal of the Liberal Conspiracy blog; the founder of MORI, Sir Robert Worcester, and, speaking from the floor, me. Arguing
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'Peer to peer protests' cost the UK economy £4bn – new legislation drafted

Here’s a little something I put together last night to keep myself amused as I watched the “front bench stitch-up” that was the Digital Economy Bill finally get pushed through. It’s just something to keep me sane… (on a side note, I tried out YouTube’s captioning tool for the first time – the service synchronises perfectly)

Digital Economy Bill – those who cannot learn from history…

…are doomed to repeat it. Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group on the revisions to Clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill: “Individuals and small businesses would be open to massive ‘copyright attacks’ that could shut them down, just by the threat of action.” “This is exactly how libel law works today: suppressing free speech by the
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Photographers to lose copyright and right to photograph in public (cached)

The following post originally appeared on PhotoActive, but had to be taken down when the site host HostPapa complained about the traffic. I’ve offered to host it here. With photographers about to lose copyright protection on their images, and the Government to curb their rights to take pictures in public, Philip Dunn looks more closely at these outrageous proposals and
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How do I hate thee, Digital Economy Bill? Let me count the ways…

1. It’s the economy, stupid Last week’s official advice (Word doc) on the bill ‘would effectively “outlaw open Wi-Fi for small businesses”‘ said Lilian Edwards, professor of internet law at Sheffield University. “This is going to be a very unfortunate measure for small businesses, particularly in a recession, many of whom are using open free Wi-Fi very effectively as a
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