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Rich Crew
12
April
the blind leading the fully sighted
The Digital Economy Bill was rushed through Parliament and into law late last week. Now I am the first to admit that I only have a passing knowledge or interest in politics but this seems to be a particularly ill conceived and poorly thought out idea; even by modern Government standards.
In short, it is supposed to stop, or at least lessen, the impact that file sharing has on the creative industries. There are other facets to it but this is probably the one that most people are aware of. Taking money out of the pockets of film and music stars does not instantly illicit sympathy but I can see how file sharing could have a longer term effect on creativity.
My issue with the Bill is that politicians are probably the least qualified people to dictate technology based policy. Doubtless they had expert advisors but advice still requires an adequate understanding of the advice which is imparted. I’m fairly sure that the majority of MPs who voted on this Bill had little or no knowledge of the subject matter.
The are two main flaws in this Bill. Firstly the possibility of people being punished who are not responsible. For example, someone illegally downloading content on a wireless connection in a café will leave the café owner liable yet not directly responsible.
Secondly, whilst it is supposedly the creative industries who are to bear the cost of identifying illegal file sharers; some of the cost will still fall upon ISPs. Consequently, this will be pushed onto the consumer.
Simply put, more time and effort should have gone into this Bill and the main bulk of the policy should have been driven by industry experts, rather than a knee jerk reaction from technophobe MPs.
