Well, It seems like the UK Government have finally lost the plot completely.
The new Digital Economy bill states that free wifi could be scrapped due to massive fines possibly being given to small and large business's alike, for allowing somebody to connect to their network, and downloading/uploading/viewing illegal information.
Copyright holders will be able to apply for a court order to gain access to the names and addresses of serious infringers and take action against them while ISPs would be able to suspend accounts of offenders.
The government added new clauses to the bill, to replace opposition amendments made in the Lords, on blocking websites used for illegal file-sharing.
Seems also, that we are slowly moving towards being a 'nanny state'.
The movement of the bill also covers p2p file sharing and anti-copyright theft. This will also include such things as myself, doing the Tech News. This is because they are moving to stop people from doing it legally, even when linking and mentioning the copyright holder.
Even something so simple as having a picture of your favorite celeb on your desktop background, would be made illegal through this legislation.
Now, as your resident Technical News provider, I felt this is something that needs to be discussed with the DC Community, and also, quote (while its still legal) the following text, taken from a Free British Newspaper called 'Metro'
Small businesses could face huge liability fines if the latest incarnation of the Digital Economy Bill comes into force, after the Government admitted in a note on the legislation that businesses which provide free WiFi access would not be exempt from the Bill's rules.
Parts of the Bill are designed to combat online piracy, yet could mean that thousands of WiFi hotspots are closed as businesses face the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, including being disconnected - and would be held responsible for the actions of customers using their networks.
Internet cafés, shops and even libraries and universities would be affected by the legislation.
Lilian Edwards, professor of internet law at Sheffield University, claims: 'Even if they password protect, they then have two options - to pay someone like The Cloud to manage it for them, or take responsibility themselves for becoming an ISP effectively, and keep records for everyone they assign connections to, which is an impossible burden for a small café.'
The digital rights campaigning organisation the Open Rights Group has hit out against the latest revelations, saying on their blog: 'Quietly, through the backdoor, allowing the use of legitimate technology has effectively been criminalized... [the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] and Mandelson are relying on very narrow, quickly thought-up, probably inaccurate technical advice.'
'This is unreasonable and incredibly bureaucratic. This Bill is going to make life very difficult for a very wide range of users – the governments notes admit as much.'
The above text, is basically showing that "The Cloud" _HAS_ to take over, failing that, the wifi provider is made to shut down, or face severe legal action.
The MPs involved 'House of Commons' sit down on 7th April 2010 in regards to the Digital Economy Bill, do not seem to understand what they are talking about, and kept quoting P2P ("Person 2 Person File Sharing") {Last time I heard, it was called Peer 2 Peer?}.
However, The one thing I did agree with, is that, just because they are cracking down on copyright theft, does not mean that the copyright holders will make any more money, because generally, if a person did not pay to download it, they did not _WANT_ to pay for it, and would never of listened to/viewed/used etc... otherwise.
If you would like to know more about this, please google "The Digital Economy Bill" or visit the following links for more ingo.
http://news.bbc.co.u..._8606000/8606892.stm ({BBC} 2 Hour 24 Minute 'House of Commons' Video Recording Included)
http://www.metro.co....ill-free-wifi-access ({Metro} Short Info Text)
*Forgot to mention, this bill has been approved, for full info, please view the video*
