Digital Economy Bill

[pukka]

Would just like to know what IDNet's view is on this bill being passed, will they take the same stance as Talk Talk?

[Rik]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Note that TalkTalk's pledge is only valid until after the election. Essentially, IDNet will comply with the requirements of the law, but will not volunteer information without due process.

[gizmo71]

Essentially, IDNet will comply with the requirements of the law, but will not volunteer information without due process.

I thought the law essentially did away with due process? Much like pretty much every other law this gummint has introduced...

[Rik]

To an extent that's true, but IDNet must comply with the law, Giz, in whatever form it takes. The rest is for the courts to decide and, if this legislation stays on the books, I see cases ending up at the European Court of Human Rights.

Clearly, those responsible for drafting this legislation have no understanding of the technology - for example, spoofed IP addresses.

[dujas]

Adrian Kennard of AAISP has posted his thoughts on the Digital Economy Act, looks like it has some pretty major loopholes.

[Rik]

Interesting read. Typical of the drafting of legislation in this Govt.

[Ray]

It's a right dogs breakfast, rushed through and drawn up by people who haven't a clue as to how the system works.  

[Rik]

Or what's really going on in the music industry, or of the fact that UK customers have been ripped off by the industry for years.

[Ray]

Indeed, Rik.

[Glenn]

 

[Ray]

  Pukka.

[zappaDPJ]

ACS:Law are of course...

delighted with the passing of the Digital Economy Bill through the House of Commons

and welcomes...

a new age of prosperity for our creative industries.

http://www.acs-law.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1

Hardly surprising really as by their own omission '80% of all defendants opt for settlements outside of court'. The threatening letters sent demand hundreds if not many thousands of pound including a demand for £8,000 sent to Graham Cove, Managing Director of The Cloud, who provided Wi-fi at his pub.

[Technical Ben]

It would seem to be that everyone is following Chinas lead. First China, then Australia. Then the UK adopts a censored internet? Not that having protection is bad. It's just weather you can trust the one holding the chains.

[Rik]

To which the answer is a resounding no.

[zappaDPJ]

That's a 100 foot tall 'NO' lit up in neon if there's any doubt 

[Rik]

And flashing...

[pctech]

There is no way I'd pay for a government censored internet.

While I agree that the Paul Gadd (Gary Glitter)s of this world should have the library thrown at them there is a lot of nonsense that the technology can be used for like copyright enforcement.

IP spoofing is possible as others have said so the only way to identify a specific piece of kit would be the MAC address so we might end up in a situation where we have to register our PCs Xboxes, etc.

[Rik]

Exactly. Given you can also spoof a MAC address, however, even that wouldn't be foolproof.

[gizmo71]

There is no way I'd pay for a government censored internet.

You won't have any choice if Gordo is elected - you'll be paying for it with your telephone tax regardless of whether you use it or not.

[Rik]

You could have stopped after elected, Giz.

[pctech]

I'll simply dump the landline and ADSL and use the net at work.

[Rik]

 

Think of us poor, retired, wrinklies.

[pctech]

 

[Inkblot]

Think of us poor, retired, wrinklies.

Not to mention us poor non-retired but yet still wrinklies as well

[Rik]

 

[pctech]

What you guys don't know about your chosen profession or subject probably isn't worth knowing.

When I started working at my current employer there was a chap who was just about to retire and was the head of a team that looked after the servers in a rather large server room.

These servers provided a lot of mission critical services to the organisation and its customers and part of my (and my colleagues') job then was to provide out of hours cover for these servers (restarting them if they fell over and doing anything else we were asked by an on-call tech person)

There must have been in excess of 300 servers in there so in order that I knew what I had to do I asked for a guided tour and he was kind enough to oblige,

The guy knew exactly what CPU each server had, how much RAM, the OS and the services it provided, all off the top of his head.

Now I don't think there's anyone in the organisation with such knowledge and hardware and software have changed around rather a lot since then.

[Rik]

Knowledge is regarded as disposable nowadays - till things go wrong.

[Glenn]

It seems to be taught that way too

[Rik]

We live in myopic times.

[pctech]

Very true