Government gone mad

By no means a current news story in the UK, I feel inclined to share this in the bloggersphere as a cautionary tale of the shape of things to come as well as a statement on when government and politicians don’t get it.

File sharing, piracy and illegal downloads is an issue, one is not going to comment on the rights or wrongs, but instead on current government policy (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8569750.stm). Being passed in the UK House of Lords (has some equivalence to an upper house in other legislative assemblies), there is some cunning on the part of the personalities involved as the House of Commons has limited time and space for any new legislation due to the expected election this year.

Based on a three strikes and you are out principle, the law has not considered:

  • How easy it is for someone with technical expertise to masquerade as another
  • The open availability of pay as you go internet, especially in the 3G domain
Therefore, who are the criminals in this new policy and who will be the victims of crime. Will the victims be the copyright holders or those who will be ‘framed’ for a crime they did not commit. Are the criminals those who illegally download, those with network subterfuge skills or the legislator presenting a potentially unworkable law. Worse is when those outside the legislative borders commit the crime and manage to present a resident as the criminal. In these matters the real worry comes, when other legislative assemblies worldwide consider the articles of law from the UK and devise their own variations. Any thoughts? Andrew Smith Follow me on Twitter: @teraknor

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