The Digital Economy Act… Passed by the Commons during ‘wash-up’… Democracy guys… democracy in action. Most MPs didn’t bother to turn up.

Do me, and online freedom a favour. Switch to TalkTalk:

One of the country’s largest broadband providers, TalkTalk, has said it would rather go to court than disconnect a customer’s account for alleged copyright infringement. It has also pledged to never surrender a customer’s details to copyright holders without a court order.

Andrew Heaney, executive director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk, wrote on the company blog: “Many draconian proposals remain [in the Act], such as the presumption that they [customers] are guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent, and, as in China, the potential for legitimate search engines and websites to be blocked.

Next, start using the following… PeerGuardian (blocks any prying eyes / government IPs / music industry watchers), Tor (nodular proxy system – the close future of how BitTorrent will likely end up), Startpage for your searching (I know you love Google, but Startpage don’t log things), and consider paying for IPredator (thepiratebay’s new VPN service, totally anonymous routing for as little as €5 a month).

Labour / Conservatives / Liberal Democrats… you don’t bother turning up? You allow Mandelson to earn his pay from the music industries? He is a dick. An evil would-be dictator. He lobbies for big corporations, and that’s it.

Hundreds of groups said no to this bill. Google, TalkTalk, most ISPs, the freaking MOD, who said that <paraphrasing> disconnecting users or using lawsuits will only cause encryption to become the de facto standard. This will also bring encryption to online crime of a more serious grade, such as paedophilia, terrorism, drugs etc, where currently they don’t use encryption and can be more easily traced. If encryption becomes the popular standard, that becomes impossible.

Support these sites:
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/04/06/20684-of-us-demand-a-proper-debate-on-the-digital-economy-bill/
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/03/30/digital-economy-bill-what-did-your-mp-say/
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/04/06/digital-economy-bill-call-your-mp/

http://www.votethemout.co.uk/

Finally, support the Lib Dem’s for General Election 2010 – they pledge to repeal the Bill!

Enjoy the freedom that is the internet – don’t let them block you, block a website, on the mere ACCUSATION (without evidence) that you deal in copyrighted material! Music industry, change the record! Find PROPER, creative ways to encourage legitimate purchase (a-la iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Last.fm, Hulu, Amazon, Steam). Stop lying about lost revenue – it wouldn’t be going to artists on the ground anyway – just sponging producers and execs.

Who decides what content is ‘inappropriate’ online anyway? We are not children – we don’t need every bit of our lives vetted by the Government! Except when they want to silence the mass-media they can’t control, can’t spin. They FEAR the internet because it is beyond their control – the truth gets out online, and it gets out fast.

Fight the power!
Peace, out!
-Matt