Thursday, April 08, 2010

Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security, freedom - Boing Boing:

During the 1960s Chairman Mao told farmers to kill crop-eating sparrows, an edict which produced a plague of the insects which the sparrows normally ate. Likewise, the Digital Economy Bill, in trying to support artists' copyright and tackle illegal file-sharing, is about to produce a new culture - in which ISPs and bewildered householders are deluged with threatening legal letters from the entertainment industry.

This matters for America and other countries, too. There is now a precedent of a partner nation disconnecting users for alleged copyright infringement. This is a terrible moment for internet privacy and freedom.