Epeus' epigone

Edifying exquisite equine entrapments

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Jeremy Hunt hates the Digital Economy Bill - will he block it?

I watched the Digital Economy Bill Second Reading debate yesterday, along with enough other twitter users to make #DEBill a global trending topic and many MP's names UK trends as we discussed it.

It was an interesting debate to watch, with good contributions from many backbench MPs who had clearly been listening to all sides of the discussion.

However, no amendments were moved - that happens today. Due to the 'washup' procedures in Parliament the Conservative front bench has an effeitive clause by clause veto over this bill. As Jeremy Hunt described the bill as:

"a weak, dithering and incompetent attempt to breathe life into Britain's digital economy.[...]We have examined this Bill clause by clause, and we agree with the hon. Gentleman that it could have been massively improved had this House been able to give it proper scrutiny in Committee. The Government have had plenty of opportunities to allow such scrutiny, and it is a matter of huge regret that we have not been able to provide it.[...]I want to say plainly to the Government that, while we recognise that some parts of the Bill will have to be let through if we are to avoid serious damage to the economy, other parts of it are totally unacceptable, and we will use every parliamentary means at our disposal to remove them.

Peter Luff put it more strongly:

Nevertheless, this is the most profoundly unsatisfactory constitutional process I have engaged with in my 18 years in the House. In his opening remarks the Secretary of State promised my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford (Mr. Whittingdale) that he would write up a list of precedents, but I do not believe-I could be proved wrong-that there is a single precedent for giving a major and controversial Bill a Second Reading once a general election has been announced. It is a scandal that the House is being asked to agree that tonight.

I have given the matter careful consideration and I make this commitment: if there is a Division, I will support the Bill because, under a true constitutional process, it deserves a Second Reading; it does not, though, deserve what will happen to it thereafter. However, I broadly support the aims and objectives of the Bill and will vote for its Second Reading should there be a Division-but I shall do so under duress and protest, because I hate and loathe the process in which I am forced to participate.

Adam Afriyie summed up:

It has been a very interesting debate, with a single theme unifying the contributions from Back and Front Benches across the House-that the Government appear to be rushing through an important piece of legislation without due scrutiny in the House of Commons. After 13 years of digital dithering, this Bill is all they have to show on the digital front. It is a missed opportunity of massive proportions. Not only is it discourteous to rush such a significant measure through Parliament in the dying days of a failed Government, but it is also incompetent.

Now given these opinions, they should use their veto wisely to get rid of the muddled clauses.

The new clause 18 is most egregious and is simplest to remove - all it does is handwave about how the Secretary of State can make some rules that then have to go before Parliament anyway. It's making up a new process that is almost as complex as passing a bill properly, but with upfront constraints.
Dump it, promise a copyright reform Bill.

The existing clause 18 is clearly bonkers, as it doesn't define 'internet location' or any of its terms, and surely violates the 'mere conduit' principle.

Clauses 10-17 have mushroomed into a complex parallel court system, with a presumption of guilt, not innocence, and an appeals model. They now have (thankfully) added the need to pass a resolution through both houses for all regulations.

Jeremy Hunt, cut the Gordian (Gordonian?) knot. Drop these rococo clauses and propose a sensible copyright reform bill for the next Parliament that reforms copyright and the net sensibly.

Posted by Kevin Marks at 03:46 No comments:
Labels: DEBill, Digital Economy Bill

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

The Statute of Anne, the Digital Economy Bill and the Red Flag Act

This week marks the Tercentenary of the 1710 Statute of Anne - the world's first Copyright law. It also marks the first discussion of the Digital Economy Bill in the Commons. And in 1865, the Locomotive act was being discussed in the Commons too. How do they compare?

The Statute of Anne opens like this:

Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting, and Publishing, or causing to be Printed, Reprinted, and Published Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors or Proprietors of such Books and Writings, to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families: For Preventing therefore such Practices for the future, and for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books;

In other words, its goal was to prevent those who have Printing machines from exploiting the creative Authors. Sadly, this aim went astray over the years, with Macaulay opposing extension in 1841 by saying:

At present the holder of copyright has the public feeling on his side. Those who invade copyright are regarded as knaves who take the bread out of the mouth of deserving men. Every body is well pleased to see them restrained by the law and compelled to refund their ill-gotten gains. No tradesman of good repute will have anything to do with such disgraceful transactions. Pass this law: and that feeling is at an end. Men of a character very different from that of the present race of piratical booksellers will soon infringe this intolerable monopoly. Great masses of capital will be constantly employed in the violation of the law. Every art will be employed to evade legal pursuit; and the whole nation will be in the plot. On which side indeed should the public sympathy be when the question is whether some book as popular as Robinson Crusoe, or the Pilgrim's Progress shall be in every cottage, or whether it shall be confined to the libraries of the rich for the advantage of the great grandson of a bookseller who, a hundred years before, drove a hard bargain for the copyright with the author when in great distress?


The Digital Economy Bill is full of language designed to chill the self-publication that empowers authors online.

To me it most resembles the 1865 Locomotive Act, which attempted to protect the horse and carriage trade from meachanical locomotives by requiring that each one was preceded by a man on foot, 60 yards in front, carrying a red flag, and that speeds be limited to 4mph in the country and 2 mph in town.

The Digital Economy Bill, like the Locomotive Act, seeks to prevent what is in its title by constraining it to the limitations of pre-existing businesses that lobby the hardest. It should not pass.

Further Reading:

  • Digital Economy Bill the Final Countdown - last plea to MPs before wash up by Lilian Edwards
  • Call Your MP
  • Three reasons why the Digital Economy Bill will damage British biz and what to do about piracy
  • BBC: Call for 'fuller' debate on Digital Economy Bill
  • The Digital Economy Bill: Thinking further about copyright by JP
Posted by Kevin Marks at 01:07 2 comments:
Labels: copyright, DEBill, Digital Economy Bill
Newer Posts Older Posts Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

This is my personal blog. Any views you read here are mine, and not my employers'.

Atom Feed

Support the Open Rights Group
My photoKevin Marks Me on Twitter
Me on G+

People's thoughts I read:

Daily

Rosie
San Jose Young People's Theatre
Dave Weinberger
Doc Searls
Gonzo Engaged
AKMA
Cory & friends
Denise Howell
Charles Wiltgen
Shelley Powers
James Lileks
Suw Charman
Halley Suitt

Weekly

Andrew Marks
Blogsisters
Arts & Letters Daily
Bricklin, Frankston & Reed
Steve Yost
Jeneane Sessum
Brian Micklethwait et al
Tom Matrullo
Gary Turner

Sporadically

Small Pieces
Stuart Cheshire
RageBoy
Nonzero
Neil Gaiman
Thomas Vincent
Brad deLong
Andrew Odlyzko
ProSUA

No to Mickey Mouse Computers

powered by blogger

Blog Archive

  • ►  2017 (2)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  2015 (7)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2014 (3)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  April (2)
  • ►  2013 (5)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (1)
  • ►  2012 (8)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (1)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2011 (11)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ▼  2010 (16)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ▼  April (2)
      • Jeremy Hunt hates the Digital Economy Bill - will ...
      • The Statute of Anne, the Digital Economy Bill and ...
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2009 (22)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2008 (28)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2007 (45)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2006 (119)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ►  June (24)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2005 (101)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (13)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (8)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (7)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (1)
    • ►  January (13)
  • ►  2004 (53)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (5)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2003 (196)
    • ►  December (12)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (21)
    • ►  September (23)
    • ►  August (19)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (9)
    • ►  April (22)
    • ►  March (20)
    • ►  February (16)
    • ►  January (15)
  • ►  2002 (224)
    • ►  December (15)
    • ►  November (21)
    • ►  October (22)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (11)
    • ►  July (28)
    • ►  June (19)
    • ►  May (29)
    • ►  April (18)
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (16)
    • ►  January (14)
  • ►  2001 (13)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (11)

About Me

My photo
Kevin Marks
Kevin Marks works on IndieWeb and open web tech. From 2011 to 2013 he was VP of Open Cloud Standards at Salesforce. From 2009 to 2010 he was VP of Web Services at BT. From 2007 to 2009, he worked at Google on OpenSocial. From 2003 to 2007 he was Principal Engineer at Technorati responsible for the spiders that make sense of the web and track millions of blogs daily. He has been inventing and innovating for over 25 years in emerging technologies where people, media and computers meet. Before joining Technorati, Kevin spent 5 years in the QuickTime Engineering team at Apple, building video capture and live streaming into OS X. He was a founder of The Multimedia Corporation in the UK, where he served as Production Manager and Executive Producer, shipping million-selling products and winning International awards. He has a Masters degree in Physics from Cambridge University and is a BBC-qualified Video Engineer. One of the driving forces behind microformats.org, he regularly speaks at conferences and symposia on emergent net technologies and their cultural impact.
View my complete profile