Leaked Documents Show UK Web Censorship Proposal Written By Record Labels

from the gov't-for-the-lobbyists,-by-the-lobbyists dept

Thu, Mar 11th 2010 4:47pm — Mike Masnick

Lobbying groups and activists write proposed legislation all the time -- it's part of how the process works. But with controversial legislation, you would at least think that politicians would be sensitive to some of the concerns of others before essentially doing a copy-and-paste on what the lobbyists give them. Not so when it comes to copyright in the UK, apparently. We had already discussed the silly proposal to alter the already ridiculously bad (and also written by the entertainment industry) Digital Economy Bill, to allow the courts to block weblocker type sites, if they were regularly used to infringe on copyrights. Now some leaked documents are showing that it was a pretty blatant copy-and-paste job from the BPI, the UK's equivalent of the RIAA. The BPI wrote up a draft and the politicians basically proposed it as is. You would think, at the very least, knowing the controversy over this topic, that they would have considered what others had to say on the issue. But I guess when your role as a politician is to be little more than a sock puppet for the industry, it's easier just to propose the legislation given to you.

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Filed Under: bpi, censorship, riaa

16 Comments

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Pixelation, 11 Mar 2010 @ 5:14pm

"it's easier just to propose the legislation given to you."

Otherwise they might actually have to consider what they're doing.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Mar 2010 @ 5:16pm

A sock puppet? Politicians? The UK's equivalent of the RIAA are a bunch of wankers.

So that explains the socks!

How many recording executives does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Three! One to screw the socket, one to screw the light bulb and one to screw everybody else.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Mar 2010 @ 5:17pm

Re:
Politicking is hard work, let's go shopping!
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Flakey, 11 Mar 2010 @ 5:38pm

Proposing legislation
That's not much different than here in the states. AS was said in the article, that's how it gets put into law. It's not just the IP folks this is done with. All major corporations do the same.

In the oil and gas, it's called Better Practices. When one of them comes up with something that works, all the rest get around to copying that method sooner or later. It may not be exactly the same thing (though a lot time it is identical) but it will be close enough to not have a dimes worth of differences. When it comes time to recommend a change, they will all show up with the latest Better Practices they are all doing with the proposed legislation already written.

When it comes time to pass it into law, I doubt a handful of the legislators even take time to read it. They just pass it into law because it was recommended by the concerned industry.

Here again, you see where the industry takes advantage of that relationship to slant it towards their wet dream.
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NAMELESS.ONE, 11 Mar 2010 @ 5:41pm

who needs to bothe rpaying politicians anymore
seems with ACTA we all know who is writing the laws and it isnt very democratic now is it.

ALMOST feels like an SS takeover, did odessa get life again somehow?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Mar 2010 @ 5:52pm

No small wonder that we live under a Corporatocracy
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Computer Repair, 11 Mar 2010 @ 10:01pm

Shocking
Seriously, who is amazed with anything anymore?
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mike allen (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 1:50am

BPI/PRS
Have really over stepped the mark now with a radio news stotry where hotels and guest houses have to pay 170 GBP a year because they have television in guests rooms that could play music.
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PaulT (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 6:07am

While this is no surprise, it should be noted that I was considering voting for the Lib Dems in the upcoming UK election (which will probably be in early May - no set dates for us Brits). Having grown up in the miserable Thatcher era, there's no way in hell I'll ever vote Tory, and getting Labour out of power might be a good thing at this juncture.

No more. They just lost my vote.
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Jim L, 12 Mar 2010 @ 8:02am

Read What They Pass
How about a law to require a politician to have actually read any bill they vote on? Wanna bet nothing would get passed?
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Richard (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 8:04am

Re: Lib Dems
Worth noting that Cory Doctorow is a Lib Dem.

I have also been a strong supporter until recently when a number of senior party people have shown themselves to have feet of clay on this issue.

I've been thinking of joining the Pirate Party but I guess I'll probably continue with the Lib Dems unless there is a strong Pirate candidate locally.

A hung parliament remains our best chance of stopping this nonsense - but mainly on the basis of legislative paralysis - and so a Lib Dem vote is still probably the least worst option - but I'm really diappointed with them...
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Richard (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 8:05am

Re: Re: Lib Dems
Let's just hope that this gets through the conference...

http://bridgetfox.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/that-emergency-motion-in-full/
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 9:06am

The lobbyists represent the industry, but who represents the people? It's certainly not the politicians. While I'm at it, I've got another question. Why are bills allowed to be voted on when almost none of the politicians are at work? Shouldn't a vote be required by every single one of them before anything can happen with that bill?
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Jimr (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 9:36am

Record labels are a greater threat than terrorists
Record labels can already destroy your finical life through the use of law suits. Now they want to take away your rights but they feel like it. It is scarier than any terrorist group because they want the laws written so all their crazy actions can be legal.

We should just label the Record labels as a radical terrorist group bent on undermining the basic principles of freedom and the destruction of society.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 10:26am

Fuck the BPI. The Pirates will find a way to circumvent, as always.
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porter mark, 3 Apr 2010 @ 2:14pm

censorship
and there,s a lot more than that i,m sure.
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