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Deutsch: Britisches Parlament stimmt für Digital Economy Bill
In a hasty meeting that lasted only two hours and a half, the UK Parliament, with an overwhelming majority (189 votes to 47), passed on 8 April 2010 the Digital Economy Bill, in third reading, without a real debate, which means that the bill will get royal assent and become law.
The Labour version of the website blocking clause as well as the 3-strikes clauses, including "technical measures for automated blocking" remained. Clause 43 on orphan works which was strongly opposed by photographers was dropped. "The UK government wanted to introduce a law to allow anyone to use your photographs commercially, or in ways you might not like, without asking you first. They have failed," said the photographers' site.
The Liberal Democrats opposed the bill and there was an attempt by Tom Watson to table amendments which were not considered. Watson drew the attention on Clause 11 which gives the Secretary of State the right to order technical measures apparently as he sees fit, thus allowing for abuse acts.
"We did our best to prevent the Digital Economy Bill being rushed through at the last moment. It badly needed more debate and amendment, and we are extremely worried that it will now lead to completely innocent people having their internet connections cut off," said Peter Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats who added: "It was far too heavily weighted in favour of the big corporations and those who are worried about too much information becoming available. It badly needs to be repealed, and the issues revisited."
The Open Rights Group did not believe this was a complete defeat. "Firstly, this is a huge victory for transparency. Thousands of people watched and commented on what would have, a few years ago, been a quiet, barely public event. Secondly, we have mobilised a huge movement, that is capable of influencing the election, and showing up politicians over the next month, and beyond," stated the group.
Talk Talk telecom provider expressed its intention to refuse to bow to the new law to be. "After the election we will resume highlighting the substantial dangers inherent in the proposals and that the hoped for benefits in legitimate sales will not materialise as filesharers will simply switch to other undetectable methods to get content for free," said Andrew Heaney, Talk Talk executive director of strategy and regulation.
The telecom company O2 considers that laws are not the right solution to the problem and suggested that media companies should look for new mechanisms to deliver paid content at a cheaper price.
The subject of the bill was largely discussed on 19 April 2010, during an online audio debate presented by the Guardian and campaign group 38 Degrees, between the three main UK political parties on the most important hot topics, as voted for by the people.
Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, on behalf of the Tories, agreed the Bill was rushed through and emphasised the absence of a proper House of Commons scrutiny stage. Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrats' chief of staff said: "We pushed to strike out the provisions on piracy and those that let Internet users be cut off. We'd want to repeal that."
And the climate change secretary Ed Miliband from the labour party, which was actually the key instigator of the bill, tried to avoid taking responsibility and kept repeating the need for a balance between Internet freedoms and a fair retribution for music, video and software creation.
So, although they had earlier voted for the bill, it seems that now, in the electoral campaign, none of the major parties really want to deal with it.
What we do next (8.04.2010)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org:80/blog/2010/what-we-do-next
DE Bill rammed through UK Parliament in 2 hours (8.04.2010)
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&am...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/08/digital-economy-bill-...
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http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/1601752/the-digital-econom...
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http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/1600463/digital-economy-bi...
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http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/lib-dems-will-call-for-rep...
EDRi-gram: UK Digital Economy Bill rushed through the House of Commons
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http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.7/uk-digital-economy-bill-rushed-...