Tuesday 16 March 2010

Digital Economy Bill passes the Lords...

Just a brief note - further to last week's post, the Digital Economy Bill has now passed its third reading in the House of Lords, and is expected to be rushed through the commons before the election (see the BBC report here). Do people really understand what's happening here? And more to the point, even if they do, do they care? There will be active campaigning against it for sure - not least by the Open Rights Group - and it will be interesting to see how much opposition to the disconnection provisions can be raised in the face of the Government's clear desire to get it done quickly. Will the UK demonstrate the kind of 'active community' that worked so well in Germany to deal with their data retention laws, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago?

I certainly hope so - and at a time when an election is looming, the government should certainly be responsive to signs of popular resistance. Are we in the UK ready to stand up for freedom on and with the internet? Time will tell...

No comments:

Post a Comment