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Digital Economy Bill Passes, File-Sharing Ends Soon

Last night the UK Government rammed through the controversial Digital Economy Bill after its third reading and just two hours debate. This means that it will later become law, everyone will stop sharing files online and the music and movie industries will net billions in the years to come. Better still, it has the full support of the people.

In a late night session yesterday the Digital Economy Bill was forced through by the Government with the assistance of the Conservative opposition.

Complaints that the Bill is far too important to be passed through the “wash-up” period were ignored and after just two hours of debate in the Commons, it will now almost certainly become law.

The anti-piracy measures in this Bill have been essentially written by the music industry but despite opposition from just about everyone, it was approved by 189 MPs with just 47 against.

Former Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson, who was one of the few who voted against, was clearly upset as he wrote on Twitter: “First time I’ve ever broken the whip in the chamber. I feel physically sick.”

A total of 650 MPs could have been present but only 236 bothered to turn up and many of those that did were still in for criticism.

“It was painfully obvious to anyone watching the broadcast from Parliament this evening that any MP that only turned up for the divisions and not the debate does not care about the views of their constituents, does not care about democracy and does not care about the future of Britain’s digital economy,” said Graeme Lambert, the Pirate Party UK candidate for Bury North.

The Bill will pass without the hugely controversial site-blocking clause 18, but in its place will be a convenient and even more worrying amendment to clause 8. This will allow the Secretary of State for Business to block “a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright”.

The scope of this amendment simply boggles the mind. Labour MP John Hemming cited the more-often-than-not copyright infringing WikiLeaks as an example.

“A recent example is the US air force video, which it published,” noted Hemming. “Copyright exists with the US Government, who under the Bill could, and would want to, apply to ban WikiLeaks from the UK. That provision is clearly in the Bill.”

Finance secretary Stephen Timms, who insisted that since the creative industries are losing £1 billion a year to online file-sharing all these measures were absolutely necessary, was also in for criticism.

Mark Sims, Pirate Party UK candidate for East Ham noted that Timms spent “much of his time on the floor delaying debate, and refusing to answer questions put to him, instead relying on the party whips to force the vote through, essentially ignoring the concerns raised by voters in their questions put to ministers.”

So there we have it. We’re nearly at the end of the process that will save the music and movie industries, generating hundreds of millions in extra revenue, create countless jobs, stop all file-sharing sites, mechanisms and the general public from sharing files.

That’s it, it’s finished. The war is lost and the best part is the whole thing was pushed through in the highest spirit of democracy and with the full support of the people.

We’re shutting down TorrentFreak now and we’ll be reporting on events outside an HMV near you soon instead. We just hope they have enough stock to keep up with demand. Exciting times ahead.

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  • Captain Sarcasm

    I must say that’s been some of the best acidic sarcasm I’ve read in a while.

    Kudos to your writing skills guys.

  • sss

    wait, what

  • Alex

    About time this law passed. The music and movie industry’s problems were entirely caused by these terrible pirates and they should be totally fine now.

  • Voldemar

    > The music and movie industry’s problems were entirely caused by these terrible pirates and they should be totally fine now.

    Splendid tale, old chap!

    Now we only need to produce enough gramophones to satisfy the demand!

  • M2M

    Words fail me.

  • Sam Weston

    I guarantee that the moment any filtering comes into effect there will be a way to circumvent it.

    It’s times like this that make me feel completely powerless and cynical about politics though.

    My MP has just been ignoring tweets, emails and letters about the bill and didn’t even turn up to the debates or vote.

    Screw you James Brokenshire, MP for Hornchurch!

    Regards
    Your Angry Constituent
    Sam Weston

  • DIK

    “About time this law passed. The music and movie industry’s problems were entirely caused by these terrible pirates and they should be totally fine now.”

    +1

  • ya right

    hmm so they think they lose a billion pounds a year stopping piracy with this bill people are going to rush back hmv blockbuster and the cinema do,nt think so like i said before 90% of the music and movies are crap only 10% is any good plus they will not provide a good Alternatives for downloading stuff online for music and movies any how assholes

  • vaultkeeper

    So file-sharing ends? We had a simular law enforced here in Sweden for a year ago, but it didnt stop file sharing at all, instead it increased. I dont think file-sharing will end just because of this. I recommend UK users to continiue file-sharing forever.

  • Sam Weston

    Just been looking at my bookmarks toolbar and seeing how many of them host copyright infringing content:
    Facebook – Copyrighted images – blocked!
    Twitter – Copyrighted avatars – blocked!
    Torrents sites – all blocked (obviously)
    Youtube – Blocked!
    Rapidshare, megaupload etc – blocked!

    What is the internet going to look like for the British people a year from now?

  • mike

    i think anything to do with filesharing will be blocked even forums,the new world order again,even hardware stops working telling you it needs a service,forums will be blocked and freedom banished

  • Voldemar

    Internets should be blocked altogether so UK people will enjoy true democracy without these pesky pirates!

  • Whatever

    What does one expect from the politicians (i mean thieves) stealing from society to build pools, houses or buy other luxury items. In this case money was actually taken away as they did not copy the items. The advantage for them is that at least the publics attention has been diverted from their stealing to this law.

    I do remember some comments in the past mentioning this bill could never be accepted. As always politicians will never listen to or represent anyone but their own wallets. They just do as they please when in power.

    Maybe it will help the pirate party in the UK like it did in Sweden.

    @TF
    In the article it seems like you’re personally very angry about it, so i assume TF is based in UK.

  • Me

    So is this law predominantly targeting the seeders of the leechers?

  • Anonymous

    Above all, piracy prevails.

  • Rabbit80

    I live in the UK and I’m not worried…

    I have been using a VPN for the past few months – I will continue to do so. NONE OF THE MEASURES in the DEB will have any effect on me at all ;)

    Message to ISP’s – Start including a VPN service with your broadband packages. Defeat this bill now and show the government that they CANNOT control the internet!

  • me

    It’s not going to make a difference. I’ll just get a seedbox and perhaps an SSH tunnel depending on the amount of fines/punishments that get handed out, then I’ll carry on as usual…

  • Voldemar

    @16

    Shhh! Remember first rule of VPN!

    They can try to make it illegal – cryptotech exports, whatever.

  • duane

    Democracy died a little today.

    But why do we have a “wash-up” period in the first place?!?!

  • Whatever

    “We’re shutting down TorrentFreak”

    You could alway move to freenet.

  • Kris

    How will the average user be impacted by this then? Will IP’s be reporting you for downloading certain files??

  • z

    @vaultkeeper

    Big difference between IPRED and DEB

    With DEB the government can close down torrent sites with just a click. They can cancel peoples internet connection with just a click.

    IPRED does virtually nothing.

  • John Down

    This will actually justify piracy even more. If the media industry doesn’t care about their customers and if the government doesn’t care about their people, why would people care about them?

    The only thing making me feel guilty is the hundreds of CDs and DVDs I’ve purchased in the past. I shall not spend a single penny on another one ever again.

  • Ash

    ^
    Yup, works on a 3 strike rule, get 3 strikes and your out! Internet Disconnect!

    The death of open-wifi begins!

  • SirCanealot

    How can they pass a law when not even half the MPs that should be there bothered to turn up? Surely if less than half the population of the UK votes, we have a hung parliament?

    The mind boggles… Oh well, time will tell what this law actually means for us… :/

  • Shareless

    Good news!

  • Peter

    Well, the U.K is pretty much a Muslim country now anyway. Might as well introduce sharia law now good and proper.

    Democracy is dead all around the world. Only way we can get it back is fight, and not with words or emails.

  • dc

    even government spy agencys like mi5 and mi6 dont want this law as they know all torrent downloaders will start using a vpn which makes it harder to see what people are up to..but done be fooled government spys can easily still trace terrorists as vpn can be opened up

  • mudisoft

    one word: fuck!

  • Sketch@1337x.net

    Holy shit…..

    Well said enigmax…..

    the pen is mightier than the sword.

  • James

    Good news.. Now everyone will throw away those iPods and get to buying CD’s again.

  • Anonymous

    Having read the debate over the past couple of days it’s painfully obvious that most, if not all, MPs had no idea what they were talking about. That coupled with the fact there were obviously 150 mps voting without attending the debate shows the sham that us democracy in the 21st century.

    At least now the darned pirates have been scuppered and we can all go back to watching mandatory trailers before our movies and paying for each track we download individually at full price, whether we use it or not. Digital economy here we come.

    In other news, my IP address will be offshore by the end of the day.

  • Anon

    I will seed harder for my UK bros. Today I lost faith in humanity.

  • your son

    my isp is gonna go broke

  • denno

    Well, this made me sick for sure. It’s sad that human beings are not able to keep up a democratic political process.
    The people that come up with this kind of BS should be ashamed of themselves. If we’re lucky the shit really hits the fan and reboots our western society at some point.
    And we are critisising China for their lack of freedoms? Friggin hypocricy.

  • Bob

    @26 Thank you very much Nick Griffin.

    And this is actually going to make fuck all difference anyway. VPN’s are going to be used more and more, and a similar law has been an absolute failure in France. Nothing to see here.

  • Sam Weston

    @23 The disconnection clause was removed from the final bill. But it has been replaced with a site blocking clause.

  • a/s/l

    i’m fairly sure this will only affect people who use places like TPB. the public sites will certainly keep the beaurocrats busy enough without having to resort to the smaller, private ones.

  • RoestVrijStaal

    We’re shutting down TorrentFreak now and we’ll be reporting on events outside an HMV near you soon instead. We just hope they have enough stock to keep up with demand. Exciting times ahead.

    LOLWHAT?!?!?

    UK is not the whole world.

    It’s just the UK, just only one stupid country with too many conservative politicians and opinions, c’mon!

  • No Agenda Show

    SHUT UP SLAVES……….
    YOU WILL OBEY……..

    dead and spent.
    stop giving money to people your ashamed of,

    good bye freedom hello

  • flagg1209

    Ascerbic and cutting, excellent writing, enigmax.

    A very sad day for Birtish democracy. It will be interesting to see what happens in the new government – if they do end up debating some of the controversial issues, as promised.

    I’ll also be calling my MP again to find out if he was in the chamber during the vote. Based on his previous responses to me, he was skeptical about the bill, I’d like to know if he was involved…

  • Anonymous

    >:(

  • *D

    Angry mails won’t do it.
    You need to get out on the streets and protest.

    How many fileshare in the UK?
    What if there was a lovely crowd of 50,000 (min) protesting about this bill?

    Get out of the house people

  • James

    Protesting will not do shit. Politicians the world over (look at the U.S) know they can do whatever the hell they like.

    Protesters will be moved on. Letters thrown out, and phone calls ignored.

    Nothing can be done, it’s all out of control now.

    Only option is I can see working is violence unfortunately as nothing else works any-more.

    Not just your small sporadic fights, but real massive upheaval.

  • Svenn

    I don’t live in the UK, but I’m sure our shitcountry will follow with a rule like that..

    Many ISP’s won’t be happy, in Belgium they’re finally beginning with offering’unlimited download space’, piracy will NEVER die..

  • hendo

    Get a VPN connection. Some great services around that are well priced, very fast and use ports 80 or 443.

    This bill will not affect you at all if you use VPN

  • Some Guy

    /facepalm

  • Kevin

    Is it just me or is anyone else beginning to thing India and China have more freedom when it comes to the internet than the West ?

    Sight blocking aside, they don’t seem to give a shit about piracy, and no-one will tackle them on it. I’m almost tempted to go there on a working holiday, see if it’s as bad as these dumb ass politicians make it to be.

  • free stuffz lubber

    oh well it was good while it lasted. I suppose I did save some money during the wild & wacky heyday of p2p downloading but it’s back to the music shop for me now….

    NOT!

  • Gargamel

    WELCOME BACK TO THE DARK AGES BRITAIN

    I feel for you guys. This really sucks.

  • me
  • Some Guy

    I hope the people of UK won’t just sit there and take it.

  • LiteHacker

    I look forward to seeing an interesting set of revolutions in the near future. :)

  • Gargamel

    Next up! The USA!

    Well…if they can make their copyright laws and jail sentences any worse then they already are.

    They’ll probably making them ride the lightning or something now to top Britain lol.

  • guenthar

    I guess the first to go will be google in the UK. Pretty soon you won’t be able to use a search engine in the UK except if any of them block torrent sites.

    PS. I thought the UK only lost Hong Kong to China but I guess it is their entire country now. We might as well call the UK the British Tibet.

  • finfag

    This is but a law, and it will most likely be ignored by both the authorities and the people.

    In finland a law was made that if you drive a car, you can talk on your phone only if you use a handsfree set.
    What happened? Ignored by everyone, including the police.

    Similar laws like the DEB have been passed on this earth, but when it instantly makes a million people criminals, nothing is going to happen.

    Best of luck and dont break the combo.

  • Anonymous

    Writing to your MP doesn’t work, protesting outside Parliament doesn’t work, lobby groups such as Open Rights Group didn’t work. The only option now is to take votes away from the corrupt and support a new political movement. DONATE AND VOTE

    http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/

  • UK Man

    This law is actually good. It will filter out the bad eggs.

    I fyou are worried, there are many solutions to circumvent anything they throw mat you.

    Just browse through this site and you’d be amazed at what you can find.

    Do some work.

  • gorehound

    I am sorry for those in the UK.I will not buy any UK corporate music or films in protest for you.I am in the USA but watch a lot of “foreign” films.
    Now the UK will lose any money they may have got from me.

  • KZA

    The Bill is not law just yet! DL what you can!!!! OR Tell the queen to not approve the Royal Ascent

  • znix

    I smell a resurgence in proxy services. Oh sweet booming market :)

  • Andy Pandy

    Freenet + Gnunet = Freedom

  • edit

    The only single positive for me was that my MP was one of the very few who both turned up to the debate (not just the vote) and spoke against it being pushed through. Kudos to David Drew MP.

    Sadly though, the vast majority toed the party line and did what the whips said. Everyone knows British politics is in a bad way right now but this was a stunning example of quite how bad it is.

    Shame on all those who voted without debating.

  • Reasoned Mind

    This law, and others certain to follow in the months and years ahead, is more about the viability of the internet as a democratic platform for distribution and sales of digital products than it is movie, book or music specific.

    Government has to either secure the majority of the network for commerce or let the entirety of digital industry succumb to unlawful piracy. Pirates online have given government a loathesome illegal challenge and a very difficult choice to make, with nothing offered as a workable, alternative, revenue producing model and government is responding accordingly. Bottom line, no person or group should ever be required to adapt to institutionalized theft, not even you personally, so stay tuned for the ACTA.

  • Britania rules the internet

    I really hope that the UK creative industries will re-coup this £1bn per year as a result of the legislation, as I work in one of them.

    However since the rest of the world will continue pirating our stuff, the whole bill seems to be a waste of time.

    Instead I think parliament should pass a law to prevent the rest of the world from using filesharing while allowing UK citizens to pirate anything they want – just like it was in the old british empire ;-)

  • MM99

    @13 Whatever

    Flagfox reports that TF is based in the United States..

  • gigi

    those who talk about circumvention or hiding data i have news for u:
    parliament can approve an amendament or a law to outlaw technologies like vpn. In brazil there was a court that declared p2p technologies illegal. U find a method of circumvention, they will have a law to ban it.
    Say u hide your data somehow. they can still see the amount of data. They can compare profiles of traffic and if your traffic seems suspiciously high and anonymous they become “interested” in u.
    u cannot circumvent things forever. U have to change the law. And u can’t change the law by sitting home and being angry on forums. I don’t see any english people protesting, just i didn’t see in France or even in Sweden. A few thousand protested in sweden. so what?
    The fact is you won’t do shit. U will be angry and then you will obey your masters. Can u prove me wrong?

  • Andyandm

    I am A pirate the music and film industry are desparate i have been using vpn for years, and download to my hearts content, this will only stop the causal downloader. Mr unelected Mandy Mandelson is in bed with the film industry and Mr Fergal i hav’nt got a clue Sharky are both idiots, this peice of law is 10 years behind where technology is long live pirates and these 2 idiots above……..

  • Anonymous

    By UK users.No point in having your internets anymore

  • report copyright

    i reckon that if the bill is passed that everyone should report copyright infringement on every site they see, no matter how small. clog up their systems with countless emails and jam up the justice system.

  • sza

    @68 this sounds good, but we need hundred of thousands if not millions to do this to get these fu*kers irritated.

  • Mr.Afghanistan

    U.K : This Law is good for you, no one country will accept this SH!T !

    UK => GO F**K yourself !

  • report copyright

    wouldn’t be hard to do, set up a group on facebook. If it can make that ‘rage of the machines’ song number 1 at christmas over the xfactor winner, pretty certain that this is possible.

  • ladam

    Sounds like my neighbour will be getting the fine.

  • dotKuro

    Being British, I raeg’d. Note to self: moar encryption.

  • Henry Hoffman

    Damn… back to shoplifting from HMV.

  • trev1604

    Time to VPN then…

  • jovialau

    I commend 70 on his succinct and down to earth comment.I heartily concur.

  • report copyright

    @74

    I 2nd that…. motion passed, tis now the law that shoplifting is legal

  • SplishSplash

    FUCK THAT.

    Its a total joke and shows what kind of government really operates over us all.

  • mark

    Story + Comments = Gold

    Keep up the work

  • Someone

    If you want to show your displeasure against this law, these coming elections vote for the PiratePartyUK. We should do like in Sweden, where the PP gained tremendous amounts of votes after TPB trial.

    Stand up for your rights, vote PPUK these elections and put them in the parliament.

  • db

    MP told Sciencetext that the Bill “will not, as many have suggested, lead to people being disconnected without an appeal.”

    He added: “Even if people are disconnected they will be able to sign up to another ISP immediately without penalty.”

    http://bit.ly/9UfW8T

  • twigg

    the whip is mightier than the sword!

    This is BS.

    My MP didnt even showup
    http://www.didmympshowupornot.com

    I sent him several emails before hand and i’m gonna write to him now and vent my anger.

    there is no pirate party member for my constituent, so i’m voting liberal.

  • Anonymous

    Reading this just makes me want to rush out tonight to spend £40 on taking the family to the cinema to watch an average film for 2 hours while spending another £15 on popcorn etc… ;)

  • John

    Which VPN service is suitable for the UK citizens?

  • Someone
  • goodnight

    @Sketch

    ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’

    Sometimes, yes. Sometimes it’s the other way round.

  • Somebody

    To show you disapproval don’t vote for Labour.

    Anyone know which party to vote for to show our appreciation in not supporting the bill? Lib Dems?

  • Anonymous

    Remember remember the 5th of november,
    remember the gundpowder plot,

    i shall see no reason why the gunpowder treason shall ever be forgotten.

    - Well that’s the best i recall it. We need V !

  • Reggit

    lol, british politicians = FAIL!

    I thought the whole point in having politicians was to improve the lives of the people in their country…not figure out new ways they can personally get richer???

    The more i hear about the houses of parliment the more i miss Guy Fawkes. Heres hoping we have a ‘V for Vendetta’ momment sometime soon ;)

  • a/s/l

    http://www.didmympshowupornot.com

    ^this site people keep linking to is for the SECOND reading, this was the THIRD reading.

    check http://www.publicwhip.org.uk to see if they even turned up to the THIRD hearing

  • dfdf

    The £7.99 i spend monthly on LoveFilm will now probaly go to a VPN instead.

  • SomeBrit

    It just pisses me off how little power we have in our own country. The government today passes some bullshit law and everybody just sits back and take it.
    Now a days nobody cares unless its about how much money the government are claiming in expenses.
    Giving in to these money grabbing assholes will not help us at all. Its because the average person doesnt care about politics these days and that they all conform to what is thrown at them that we have problems like this today.
    Look what happened a few year back with the smoking ban. Government threw that law in when millions were against it.
    I read something about them trying to do a similar thing in another country where the population rebelled and the law didnt stick very long.
    I guess what im saying, is continue to pirate your shit but in a safe manner that you dont get caught. Show the government and the media that we will NOT conform and that they have not won.

  • me

    David Geffen and his ilk may have enough money to buy Baron Mandy and your elected representatives, but you CAN use democracy by pushing and supporting the Pirate Party through donations, campaigns (online AND offline), by educating your friends and relatives, and in general by making a LOT of noise and being unrelenting. Don’t let those shady backroom deals strip you of your freedoms.

    P.S.: VPNs are the next to be targetted. Don’t rely on them being there forever. You need to cure this social disease not with technical means, but with persuasion and tenacity.

  • Anonymous

    @90 This.

    If we want to change the laws we need to change the government. Vote for the PP and put them there. Just don’t vote for the labour or tories anymore.

  • kate

    Stephen Timms made me so mad last night when he was told anyone can hack a ip address his answer was

    not if they have a password is he on drugs

    I pray that the European union can kill this bill now as it has to be wrong to allow the music and film industry to spy on people

  • Herr Knulla

    TLDR. I have a short attention span from all pirating, please sum it up

  • hash2o

    “a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright”.

    In connection with….. Well there goes half the internet.

  • GrX

    this whole thing was about economy lmao they’ve single handed killed it dead.

    All customers of ISP’s are on 20mbit/50mbit for one reason only they find they no longer can use the internet for downloading they no longer want to spend 40/50quid on their broadband so they either cancel it or swap it to a lower package because lets face it there is only so many pretty flower pictures out there to look at before you stumble up-on some copyrighted image :)

    so isp’s lose multi millions jobs go, people who’s lost their right to download content will retailate and not buy a damn thing so thats millions of people stop buying and supporting the industry so millions more is lost.

    what put this country in the state it was in was adding a pound on petrol and diesel lol thats what caused this.

    imagine the state its going to be in when millions of people are going to be effected.

    their is going to be riots in months to come when users/customers who had no idea of this DEB [lets face it only 2% of the uk internet users even knew it existed but when the 98% find out their is going to be utter chaos in this country.

  • Benson

    The sarcasm in this post is fantastic.

  • Anonymous

    Poor democracy, how you have dwindled. Let’s hope that the Human Rights Act can, in time, remove it’s foul stench.

  • Gordon Gekko

    Politicians will always favour big business and corporate desires. The little people and small businesses are brushed aside because they haven’t got unlimited funds to bribe the politicians with, see the recent Channel 4 despatches programme for evidence of this fact.

    In the UK our political system has been run by the established crime gangs for far too long, it’s ironic that they want to stop ‘illegal’ sharing but have very little desire to curb their own dodgy dealings and fake expense accounts. Not one will go to prison for the real theft they carried out from the taxpayer, millions of £s. Let’s not forget that fact.

    The simple answer is to vote for none of the established parties – vote for anyone else but the big three. Or spoil your paper come May 6th. We need to dismantle parliament and start again, with none of the crooks and vipers that inhabit it now.

  • im voting pirate party

    What annoys me the most is peoples response when it was first announced and now… “lets write letters, and emails!” like that actually works.

    The corrupt in government just ignores it all because there is no reason for them not to ignore it. They know the minority parties will not get in power in the UK so they all they play the same tune so that they all still come out on top (albeit a little differently so sheeple think thre is a difference).

    In the US they at least have the right to bare arms so if all else fails they at least have the chance of forcing out a government thats not representing the people, no matter what party is in power, via force (god forbid it comes to that).

    However they do have strong grass root movements to elect indendants into office.

    What we do in the UK? Whine.

    We went from a nation that deposed kings and governments for our freedoms to a nation of letter writers, moaners and whiners.

    In France the government introduced car clamping like in the UK. In France they superglued the locks (or so i heard) making it too costly for the government to continue. In the UK we whined.

    If no main party will fight on on our side, then we have to fight the lot of them for ourselves by forming our own parties (pirate party) or by using action.

    wooooo that became quite a rant.

    Anyway, I am lucky i can vote pirate party – which I will be doing and i’ll be urging everyone else to here as well. However they need more ppl to get votes for.

  • d0s.eu
  • Goug

    Sounds like it’s the end of unemployment. With all these new jobs that are going to be created because no one pirates, there will be no more poor people. We should all praise “the industry” for making the world such a better place to live. I now never need to worry about losing my job as I can always get a job in “the industry”.

  • Bill

    I won’t buy a single CD/DVD because of this law, so there will be a net loss from me from now on.

    And file sharing will continue – people will simply find open wi-fi networks to download from. Fuck them and their law.

  • Barse

    @39 – no we need more conservative MPs and we will get more. We do not want socialism in the UK.

  • Master Bates

    Politicians know nothing about the Internet or technology. They are out of date old men who have butt fucked this country’s economy. Not satisfied with screwing us all economically for the next 20-30 years they want to strangle one of the only areas of economic growth – online technology.

    The dinosaurs in this crumbling parliament need to go, they are out of their depth and are dragging this country down. Business will go elsewhere because the burdens of over regulation and law is destroying kill the little economic growth left.

  • twzz

    The sarcasm in this post MAY BE fantastic BUT……

    it’s too deflated (which granted, is allowed today) and risks missing out on the good fight ahead….

    A couple of points:
    1. Copyright in general is still jurassic – languishing somewhere in 1962.
    2.The fine print of the digital economy bill – in a very luke warm yet still present kind of way – encourages both sides in a copyright dispute to explore ‘new’ ways forward. There are little concessions like this peppered in the language which could potentially act to force a certain kind of power into the hands of information sharing networks. It may be the end of the free for all economy in general but the fight for control of distribution occupies a centre ground which is on one side being squeezed by the old order, and on the other being viewed by politicians as a way of embracing a broad notion about creating economic growth (i.e. scoring a political success) in relation to digital technology in general.
    EG: If bittorrent websites were organized enough they could present themselves as legitimate unions of digital distribution and create their own agreements with digital work creators about how royalty distribution could work. The opportunity to develop the p2p network that’s already established lie before you. You can keep it’s best characteristics and hijack the royalty platform. In many respects the digital economy bill makes a nod and a wink to this kind of discussion. But i fear it’s going to be missed in the intense stand-off between Mr big music-movie mogul and small pirate outfits everywhere.
    3. The question of proof of infringement remains very contentious. I think we’re generally in for a round a major fireworks in terms of defining court cases yet to occur
    4. The technological revolution is in full swing – new possibilities – new worlds…..

  • Anonymous

    Politicians know nothing about the Internet or technology. They are out of date old men who have butt fucked this country’s economy. Not satisfied with screwing us all economically for the next 20-30 years they want to strangle one of the only areas of economic growth – online technology.

    The dinosaurs in this crumbling parliament need to go, they are out of their depth and are dragging this country down. Business will go elsewhere because the burdens of over regulation and law is destroying kill the little economic growth left.

  • Rick

    really nice article, i hope they wont be able to pass the same law in Canada…

    btw you should add a Facebook Share button for articles, it would be helpful to spread the message for the people

  • Nathan

    This will not stop file sharing, if anything it might actually increase file sharing which is what has quite regularly happened in the past.

  • ho no

    a good vpn site please

  • OJ

    My condolences to everyone affected by the Digital Economy bill.

    TorrentFreak it’s been real.

    While Internet piracy just got a whole lot more risky, never let that stop you. Buy hard drives to rent and rip your own high quality movies/music. Find like minded individuals and swap hard drive to hard drive. They can limit us but they will never stop us.

  • kate

    I am right in thinking its not even the goverment that do the spying its the film and music people that they are telling are isps to give are data to

    and dont tell me that the music industry is not going to get every site banned with in a week of this being law

    I remember the outcry they made when tapes came along and video recorders and even cd and dvd-rs but they did not ban them

  • Trelew

    Sadden to see that government still care too much about corporate welfare than that of the people they are suppose to represent.

    As I said before, this bill was probably made in some corporate HQ, presented to senior government bureaucrats (which don’t change with the whims of elections) and politicians by some corporate lobbyists. Everybody involved in this disgrace is, of course, protected because most governments are protected by a culture of no transparency and no accountability.

    This is truly a sad day for humanity.

  • Jay

    So this is where it begins. Amendments to this bill will limit your online rights increasingly. Big Brother will certainly watch you.

    Hey, 20 years from now your children will look back on V for Vendetta as historical fact, or at least the line will be very blurry. :)

  • talorthain

    I had already decided to vote pirate party…. and this just proves I was right…

  • Madcotto

    http://digitaleconomybillsaints.blogspot.com/

    ^^ Here is the 47 that voted for your internet freedom the rest didnot. pass this info onto everybody you know and use your vote in the coming election wisly

    please do pass this link everyware (or its info) we need to make these people squirm and answer to there decisions, THEY ARE MAKING FOR YOU.

    thanks for you time, and dont winge VOTE

  • The Mysterons

    Don’t get too het up fellow Brits, we all know that the wonderful British gutter press will be the undoing of this bill!

    In a few months time there will be some spectacular miscarriages of this legislation which will leave the tabloids baying for the blood of MPs et all, EU will chip in stating the law is illegal as it stands, the Lib Dems (who will be propping up the new government) will demand an amendment as they did before and the government will unhappily comply just to keep the peace.

    Meanwhile normal users discovering blocked websites will learn how easy it is to connect to a VPN, the reappearance of ‘blocked’ websites will give them confidence to start using torrents again and we’ll be back to normal!

    So don’t get mad or demand revenge, sit back, relax and enjoy the farce!

  • kate

    voting for the pirate party will not work they are not on the national ballot are they

    I was thinking they just were on ballots in the places there people are running

  • The Mysterons

    Correct Kate, we don’t have proportional represenatation (yet!) so only your local representatives will be there, but remember the Lib Dems stood solidly against the bill and they will be on the ballot paper.

  • The Doctor

    What was really interesting, was that only 9 Conservative MP’s bothered to show up and voted. 4 in favour of the Bill and 5 against.

    Me thinks that the Conservative’s will use this as an election issue yet!

    But in the mean time get off your computers, make up a sign and start picketing outside Parliment, HMV/Virgin etc stores about how the studio’s and Gov’t have abused the democratic process and that people should boycott purchasing for a month anything released by the facists.

  • kate

    my problem is the lib dems have had control of are council and they ruined it and the mp is not the best he did not even show up for this and has not answered my email about this crap bill

    my family has always voted labour I have all my life but not this year and I will never vote for the torries

  • Pingback: Großbritannien bekommt “Three Strikes” mit dem Abwasch | Spreeblick

  • antiantipiracy.blogspot.com

    One thing for sure is that people will go back to 150kbytes/s internet and ISPs will be mad.

    ‘We’re shutting down TorrentFreak now and we’ll be reporting on events outside an HMV near you soon instead.’

    But, guys, where will we go to read the REAL news? This is the only place where I read stuff… Anyways TY TF for all the topics. :(

  • The Doctor

    In fact if your MP didn’t vote against it, then picket outside their electoral office as well.

    http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2010-04-07&number=132&display=allpossible

  • Øystein B. Jakobsen

    This is just another example that the Copyright wars cannot be won by legislation. The entire legislative process has been appropriated in its entirety by the Copyright industry (ref IIPA members).

    As our elected representatives are unable to change the situation for us, we need to change this ourselves.

    IE we must change it by money, not by law! Stop feeding the dog that bites you – and this dog is particularly rabid, destroying everything in its path! Stop feeding it! Let it bark and whine.

    If a company is a member of MPAA/RIAA/BSA (Microsoft, Disney, Warner etc)…

    * Don’t buy CD’s and DVD’s
    * Don’t buy merchandise
    * Don’t go to the movies
    * Don’t go to concerts
    * Don’t buy products from companies that advertise through their content (product placement etc)

    Starve the bastards out!

  • The Mysterons

    Agree Kate, our council is hamstrung as the various councillors are much more interested in scoring points over each other than representing the best interests of the residents. Nevertheless you should vote; as my grandma used to say, a vote in what you believe is never a wasted vote!

  • d0s.eu
  • kate

    The Mysterons

    this is how bad mine are they took all the cash from new deal that helps get people jobs during the worst recession in history for what

    new Christmas lights for the town centre

    they also spent every other bit of cash so the town is now broke

    cannot wait for the door visit we always get as a labour councillor is my mums cousin he is going to get it lol

  • MissedMemories

    Comments Record Break. People seem to be really upset about this.

    But will this really affect us? Will this really harm us? Will this really be true? I don’t think so. That, or eventually we’re going to have a revolution…

    GG Bill. I know you hacked, and I’ll now report you to the administrators.

  • Alex

    I think the government is going to be scratching their heads when hundreds of thousands of ‘cease and desist’ letters start landing on the floors of every single parent of a teenager in the UK, not to mention everybody else.

  • Borderline Voter

    My MP (Sir Michael Spicer) refused to communicate and I don’t even know if he turned up for the debate. I don’t think so as his is buggering off at the election so I don’t expect to much from him apart from squeezing more expensives before he bunks off.

    Anyway, now people can block websites by law for stupid and silly reasons to just pocket money. I wonder what will be the first sites to be blocked?

  • Loiu Tomas

    Wow, thats pretty messed up dude. Seriously. Good thing there are plenty of ways around it.

    anon-resources.at.tc

  • awishformore

    VPN business will flourish.

  • DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS

    although this is a load of shite I will just continue my normal practices behind my vpn, have a nice day.

    Oh yeah troll above, it’s called freedom of speech so you shut your mouth.

    Have a nice day.

  • DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS

    Great service here guys,

    http://www.hideipvpn.com/premium_vpn

  • Meh

    @ #25
    Perhaps the politicians who did not show up were paid off?

  • anon

    @ 131 that service says it doesn’t allow P2P or do they all have to say that?

  • Jim

    Welcome to Korea, china, ect ect

  • Whatever

    UK politicians dont need bribes, they just declare their expenses.

  • Anonymous

    @133 You’re allowed P2P on the German package :)

  • SL

    The media will never see a penny from me.

    Ill use an anonymous service to get to blocked sites. If that fails Ill use a VPN.

    Also, anyone who gets caught has a great alibi, how can they be infringing copyright if they cant get to the site to download the file in the 1st place.

    I bet the spooks are gutted too, now VPN usage will increase massively which will hamper their spying efforts.

  • Jim

    How many Billions did Gordon Brown lose in one day, when he sold OUR gold reserves.

    I hope the poor film and music studios crawl out of poverty soon, we can see they have been having a hard time lately.

  • kate

    I bet there are people right now working on new torrent clients that get past this law that is the thing these old me dont get the people building these clients are smarter than them

  • duane

    Best VPN service, by the pirate bay dudes: ipredator.

    Use it.

  • broxibear

    The worrying thing about this is who they’re going after, not the ISPs or hosts like Rapidshare but they’re going after the downloader.
    I can see the headlines now, “teenager fined £77,000 for illegal downloading”…you feel sorry for the first few people caught as they’ll be made examples off in a very public way.
    If one of those cases is taken all the way to the European court and fails it’s all over…there’s no coming back after that.
    From what I’ve read the technical requirements of the law mean that it’ll be about a year before it’s fully up and running, so we in the UK have a while to download all the expensive software we simply can’t afford to buy.
    A previous poster is right about internet speeds…why would you want a fast broadband service if you can’t download what you want.
    Are you going to pay for a 20mb line so you can see your emails faster?…I can do that with dial up.
    As far a protesting goes, it aint going to happen or do anything…millions protested against the invasion of Iraq, did it make any difference at all?…no.
    Film studios and music labels are under the impression that if illegal downloading is stopped then their sales will go up, I just don’t see it.
    I watched the Hurt Locker last week, I downloaded it, had I not been able to download it would I have paid £10 to watch it at the cinema?…no.
    Will I now buy microsoft office?…no…I’ll use the open source software.
    Will I spend £700 on Photoshop CS5?…no I’ll use an old copy of CS3 as it’s basically the same.
    I don’t know what’s going to happen but it’s not going to be pretty.

  • some one

    They also made law which makes pirate party in UK illegal :(

  • @127

    Suck my cock, this blog is great you faggot.

    TORRENT FREAK RULES!

  • Anonymous

    I meant @ 130 on the torrent freak rules

  • Anon

    I see a domino effect potentially happening here. First, all the true torrent and file sharing sites get blocked. Then the ones linking to the torrents get blocked. Then video hosting sites. Pretty soon, it’s going to be proxy services, since by nature of circumvention they allow copyright infringement to occur. Then it becomes sites talking about it, since it brings the idea of file sharing to the public mind, which could induce it. Might as well get the blacklist from communist China now and save everyone time.

  • Anonymous

    The Bill just got passed…

  • Jim

    “I am A pirate the music and film industry are desparate i have been using vpn for years, and download to my hearts content, this will only stop the causal downloader. Mr unelected Mandy Mandelson is in bed with the film industry and Mr Fergal i hav’nt got a clue Sharky are both idiots, this peice of law is 10 years behind where technology is long live pirates and these 2 idiots above”

    Fergal Sharkey is a talentless shitbag, the only song he was famous for was a “A goog heart is hard to find”, which the words and music was writen by Maria McKee.

    Fuckoff Fergal.

  • Phoenix

    no it wont end :)
    and @torrentfreak: stop making it seem to be a crisis for file sharing

  • Anonymous

    @ your VPN services! Make sure you can trust your VPN. And of course if you love freedom you must totaly boycott the entertainment industry.

    This mean no CD, no DVD, no movie theater visit no TV NOTHING!

    Get all your entertainment only via download and copying stuff!

    If we don’t get rid of these corporate parasites and corrupted politicians we will have to escalate and it is not going to be pretty.

  • Panda

    If we elect the government, and the government protects the corporate interests… who the hell is protecting us?
    It’s a good day for the molotov-coctail throwing anarchists, a bad day for the Britisch people…

  • motosickly

    If it can’t be circumvented online I’d choose to purchase pirated movies and music from the guys and gals on the street corners. They might see a jump in sales. Cheaper too.

  • Aman

    Nothing is gonna change

  • Failure

    Wow I’m never going to pirate again!

  • Beware!

    Would they be able to block Justin.tv for instance that shows the footie matches

    Cause Sky Tv would love that

  • SKYTV

    Would they be able to block Justin.tv for instance that shows the footie matches

    Cause Sky Tv would love that

    Yes we WOULD

  • ya right

    a little bit of topic. in the 60,s they tried to stop pirate radio in uk in the 80,s to 2010 fm pirates in big citys london etc are still running wirless telegraghpy act 1949 broadcast act 1990 did not stop them. last but least this digtal bill wo,nt to switch fm radio to dab radio which we all no is shit because they beleave radio fm pirates have not got technical means to broadcast on dab frequencys due to the need of a mux so so wrong there will soon be dab radio pirates so bottom line what ever measures and laws a put in place we just adjust to the climate business as usual

  • Alrock

    I watched the debate on TV & just have to say I am totally disgusted by the state of British democracy….
    In the actual chamber during the debate where a pitiful small number of MPs with the overwhelming view against this bill. Come the vote all the whipped MPs suddenly turned up managing to drag their arses away from the bar to vote on a debate they didn’t even hear.
    There needs to be a change in the voting rules so that only those present for the debate get to vote.

  • chuck

    ISPs who are opposed to this bill are basically saying that they are aware the majority of their customers are pirates and they don’t want to be forced to do anything about it.

    If customers aren’t allowed to steal content then they have less need to buy faster connections.

    It has nothing to do about fighting for human rights. Its all about profit.

  • Barack Obama

    Get me the British Prime Minister on the phone… I want to find out how to duplicate that ruling over here now…

  • sUpAGee

    RAGE!!!
    Why accept laws forced by greedy megacorporations?
    I can’t describe the situation we are all in now.. It is a fact the p2p can not be stopped, it is not a single machine.. it’s a global network!
    P2P FTW!

  • worried user

    please can we have an article detailing vpns, how good they are, which the best ones are and how easy they are to set up?!
    thanks

  • wagner

    this is not the end of the internet. It just means kids will have to actually get jobs to buy stuff.

  • antiantipiracy.blogspot.com

    ”this is not the end of the internet. It just means kids will have to actually get jobs to buy stuff.

    You funny man you.

    BTW for those who ask questions about VPNs – I use ibVPN and I love it. I get the same DL/UL speed as I normally get.

  • annoyed person

    uno what annoys me?? over 20,000 me,bers of the public wrote to their MPs telling them they didnt want the bill to be pushed through!!!!
    this is not democracy!!!
    how are they ever going to enforce it??? its a waste of time and money and all because of the greedy people in the music industry.
    this government is crap we need a new system where the people actualy have a say in what laws are passes not some brown nosed basterd!!!!!!!! this will cost more money to do then the industrys are loosing!

  • kate

    can someone answer me this in the joke oh sorry debate last night they kept saying uk entertainment industry is losing money and will be doing the reporting if we download anything

    does that mean that the us people dont get the right to spy ie can we still download anything that is not made in the uk

  • shivermetimbers

    Please everyone stop the moaning,let’s get our heads together and find ways of making this law unworkable. In the meantime we are all going to need anonymity because one things for sure, they will already be harvesting IPs looking for UK down loaders.

  • b

    DON’T use itshidden vpn, waste of time and money. I still haven’t been sent my password info after countless emails.

  • Hans pandacunt

    So glad im immigrating, the goverment is getting more and more corrupt and fked up as time goes on. And they wonder why support for MP’s have gone down, you must be kidding me. We may as well all just bend over as Lord Mandlequeer stuffs us up the arse.

  • police state

    so the UK government have just enabled censorship of every piece of media on the by the blocking of url’s on the web, that shows them to be criminals, and sold to us all via the fear of terrorism, sry i mean paedophiles,,, eek sry i mean pirates!

  • me

    Meanwhile, in Kyrgyzstan, a government was just overthrown. Coincidence, or inspiration? ;-)

  • Traum

    I agree with http://torrentfreak.com/digital-economy-bill-passes-file-sharing-end-soon-100608/#comment-651796 but it´s LAW and you must obey the Law or else.

    Glorious days are coming when police have enough job and prison are full and you mus build more facilities for criminals, ah it´s so beautiful future.

  • in.cog.nito

    #3 “Alex” needs to be punched in the face.

    Also, time to revolt UK brothers. Time for another Gunpowder Plot.

    Remember, remember the 8th of April..ok that doesn’t rhyme, but tis time.

  • m3tz

    Whats a good vpn to use in the UK?

  • adams

    @123 Øystein B. Jakobsen

    +1

  • police state

    so the UK government have just enabled censorship of every piece of media on the internet by the blocking of url’s on the web that shows the government to be criminals, and this was sold to the general public by the state controlled propaganda media, via the fear of terrorism, sry i mean paedophiles,,, eek sry i mean pirates!

  • Ninja

    Oh man, that’s amazing for the media industry as they’ll recover from their almost bankrupt state and generate all the millions of jobs the UK needs. And obviously teenagers, retired firemen, printers, grandmas, grandpas, moms and other truly vicious criminals will be put into jail because that’s where they deserve to be. /sarcasm

    I just loved the deep sarcasm in this article enigmax, congratulations!

    “And we are critisising China for their lack of freedoms? Friggin hypocricy.” – I’ve been telling that for a while now….

  • x

    Epic Fail. That is all.

  • JoHN

    @48__
    yeah in INDia noBody CAres abT PIracY ‘coz da stuPId goVt. is BuSy vid laW n orDEr PRoblz (ALso MassiVE coRrupTion AmonG goVt. Employees) , den der r PAKis nd ChineSE **ucKin Up …
    donno Till when v vil b Able 2 Dwnld lyk dis w/o ny REstrictionS .. I hav mah FinGERS crOssed … thouGh cuople F months earLier MPAA held a meEting vid da INdian FIlm inDustry abt ‘PIRACY’ .. ASsholes ..!!

    feelin Srry 4 Brits … :(

  • dixon

    be careful about choosing a VPN. many are scammers that throttle speed or limit monthly traffic. they also go broke all the time.

    much cheaper to get on a good private tracker

  • Brilliant Death

    Prison, here we come!

  • Grimreapor

    Make them pay with your votes… That is where it will hurt them.

  • Innes

    A good private tracker?

    They watch ALL trafic, filter sites and report on you, this is terrible and i dont see how anyone was voting for this

    Google falls undere the requirements for blocking, so yeh =/

    Ah well VPSN’s from TPB al the way now

  • neostyles

    Is it really so bad? Using money isn’t that difficulty. You just have to go a store. It’s actually a very gratifying experience to earn money and purchase something. No, it does not have the full support of the people. People like file sharing and they want to have everything for free, but that is simply not the way the world works. This is a landmark example of the governmen’t obligation to uphold the law. We have grown accustomed to not having to pay for anything, but sooner or later people will have to learn how to pay for things legally.

    VPNs will not solve any problems. The VPNs themselves will be shut down when it shortly becomes clear that they are being used to circumvent the law. Furthermore, torrent in England will go down, so even if you get around the blocks there will be little to acess.

    Pirates have been calling for copyright holders to “adapt to the internete age” and “update their business models.” Well it seems they just did.

  • Anonymous

    well darth mandleson will be getting head from the his friends with the private island this weekend. hope he’s happy with him self for screwing the people for financial gain

  • Anonymous

    You can’t stop the signal.

  • nom

    swissvpn.net + vpn enabled router = no monitoring or letters =D

  • ask0

    So vote LibDem or PirateParty.

    Labour and Tories are essentially in agreement regarding this legislation.

    Can anyone tell us (maybe TorrentFreak can write an article)
    on how to download in safe mode in the UK with recommendations etc )
    now that Dandy Mandy and crowd have sold us out.

  • thelazysamurai

    I wonder why nobody bothered to check out the profits made through anti-piracy measures such as basic DRM. How much worth is it anyway?

    But shame on you England, for such utter disrespect for the sanctity of freedom on the internet. We all know stealing is bad, but repression is worse. Try to think of something else in the future, please? In the nice word of mr. Obama: CHANGE!

  • Anonymous

    The movie ,games and music industry are NOT going to see a big increase in sales as a download is not a lost sale, just because I can not download a film does not mean I am going to spend £8 plus petrol plus over priced food to go and watch it in discomfort , in short they are in cloud cookoo land if they think this bill is going to help them, in fact it may well work against them in relation to the feeling of ill will they have generated to many millions of down loaders, I for one will never pay for a movie ever again and I have spent a lot of money over the years buying allsorts of stuff , you see down loaders also buy a lot more entertainment as they have a much greater interest in film, music and so on than the average man or woman in the street, I will move on and find another interest not related in any way to this silly dream world of entertainment, I think governments want complete control over the internet as they have seen how it can let the cat out the bag so to speak IE expenses scandal, wilki leaks, and so on, and I think they are using this copyright excuse to do there dirty work for them and if it means having to SHIT on the people so be it, you see anyone who craves power so much they are willing to lie to just about everyone they meet in order to get that power is not going to be trust worthy anyway and there is only one type of person’s that I know who do this all the time day in day out and that is of course a politician , if you want to piss them of vote for the “pirate party” were you can and if they don’t have a candidate in your area then do the next best thing and vote “lib dem” at least they did not and are not supporting this bill even though they did fuck up early on, and buy the way it is only a matter of time till VPN’S are licensed as this will be a very nice new tax for are corrupt leaders again using the excuse this must be done in order to stop people hiding there identity online they are already talking about it here and there on the net so don’t shout to loud about vpn you will just speed up the process, anyway I have said my bit and know I am going to have a good shoot on my own land whilst I can still do that and every thing I shoot at is going to look like that fucking corrupt wanker mandelson LOL, good luck and buy to all my sharing friends it’s been a BLAST.

  • BPI

    The Act’s measures to reduce illegal downloading will spur on investment in new music and innovation in legal business models. An internet that rewards taking creative risks will mean more British bands enjoying global success, more choice in how to access music online, and more jobs in our fast-growing creative sector. These measures will not eliminate all piracy, but they will go a long way towards reducing illegal freeloading and will help to build a more sustainable ecosystem for content on the internet. We are acutely aware that music fans are at the heart of our business as it embraces the digital age. Hand-in-hand with the new measures, we will continue to expand the exciting range of legal services that offer vast catalogues of music to stream or download and which reward artists for their work. We will underpin this with industry initiatives, such as the recently launched Music Matters campaign, to raise awareness of these offerings with UK consumers. We will now work diligently with other stakeholders, including ISPs and Ofcom, to develop the Code of Practice that will bring the Act into effect.”

  • Anonymous

    wont using peerblock out these rats,

  • dPsychc

    I’ve never spent a single penny on any movie, game or music, until and unless it was made by independent studios or artists. And I never shall if a shit bill like this passes in India anytime. I hope it doesn’t or else I may very well join the Maoists lol.

  • Sergeant K

    Boycott everything, buy no movies or music until this law is overturned. We must starve these parasites to death.

  • :(

    TF scares me..

    I need to go to my happy place now..

  • Anonymous

    Link to the current bill anyone?

    How will this effect torrents(public/private), rapidshare(cyberlocker sites), newsgroups,e2dk/limewire/etc.

    List of VPNs

  • OJ

    @169 Great idea, TorrentFreak could you guys write a comparison article on the best P2P friendly VPN’s?

  • Anonymous

    @ bpi piss off, you burnt your bridges a long time ago cake-takers.

    money and music are no longer a option. look at the podsafe network.

    music was around long time before you buggering bugger were. the only-thing you have achieved is introducing corruption in arts place.

    FREE LIBERAL OPEN SOURCE
    OPEN RIGHTS

    HELL to the haters and their supporters and friend.

    down with imaginary property.

    LIVE FREE OR DIE

  • Mr. Briggs

    And here I thought this was too late for an April Fools’ joke.

  • PrisonInvestor

    Yes! To jail with these thieves!!!

  • Glemball

    With the election coming soon i would imagine that the three main parties web sites will be full of there usual propaganda that some may want to read. So as a demonstration to this disgusting bill why not pick a site a time and a date in the hope we may crash it and hopefully create a news story that will enlighten people who have no idea of what is going on. Just a thought, Someone must have an idea.

  • Anonymous

    @198

    Ken your not the BPI but you do know this will damage you big time. It will not stop illegal piracy, that will long continue – look at Sweeden. It will not mean British Bands will enjoy more success that is just a daft statement. You say you will offer more legal services, come on with Itunes, 99p + per song, piss off. I would not pay more than 25p per song.

  • Anonymous

    today 8 april 2010 i cant access the pirate bay when i have ipredator on ! if i disconect from ipredator vpn the site loads…what is going on ??

  • Anonymous

    It’s a fascist world we live in.

  • Pingback: Pirate Home Page » Digital Economy Bill Passes, File-Sharing Ends Soon

  • anon

    suprbay is down why?

  • MrNobody

    This http://whatdebill.org/ might not mean anything legally, but it is a symbol of resistance. Please sign if you use Twitter.

    Also, it is only £10 per year to join Pirate Party UK. The more members, the more influence, especially with the 3 major UK party’s talking about reforming copyright to define “Fair Use”.

  • Jigsy

    Three simple words:

    Spineless fucking rats.

  • hugahuga

    what is a HMV?

  • kuru

    Heil to the NWO!
    Heil to the bright future of unprecedented freedom, freedom to consume ad nauseum.
    Heil to the brandnew slavery, slavery with golden manacles.
    And if you think it will make any difference to vote this or that, to talk or beg, to reason or dispute, you are WRONG.
    Soon we’ll have to fight…

  • anonymous

    at #198. in other words, as soon as BPI can adopt the ideas that your own customers asked you to adopt God knows how long ago, you will. and as soon as you can charge people for using p2p and torrent to download content, the very methods you have for so long condemned people for using, you will. and as soon as you can really f**k people up, you will. bunch of hypocrites not worth a toss!!

  • Tomas

    Just as long as they tell me the site is blocked and not just cause it to time out or reset the connection then I’ll be fine.

    If it times out/resets then I may think it’s a problem with the site.

    If I get a nice message saying it’s been blocked by the government I will know to just go back to it through a VPN.

  • Tomas

    How about we go and cover up or tear down the billboards showing the Quattro propaganda image? It’s copyrighted, so we can just say we were following the law and ensuring nobody can see it.

  • Just a Fella

    “…allow the Secretary of State for Business to block “a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright”

    So…when I search for torrents on Google, does this mean I am contributing to the eventual banning of Google? Please say it ain’t so. Maybe I’ll start using Bing.

  • Anonymous

    @7

    more like -1 seeing as “alexs” comment was just stupid… obvious trolls are obvious…

  • jerry babbary

    @207

    just shut up…

  • XeN

    Wow so screwed up!!!! cant believe this is happening!

  • Sad and Broke

    Why have freedom if you can’t copyright it anyway.

  • AnonymousBroadcast

    @164

    I’ve looked into it, creating the multiplex signal for digital terrestrial television or digital audio broadcast isn’t that complex. It could be done with an old computer and a suited digital to analog converter card. This equiptment could be built for under 200$ and a week or two coding. It will be illegal even if you don’t broadcast because of patents involved, but I suppose most radio pirates won’t care.

  • d3script0r

    well it needs to go through the house of lords to be passed as a law so considering most of them are probably the fuckers that own the music companies what with labours cash for peerage scheme and teh fact that us british do not live in a democracy what so ever when was the last referendum you ever heard of in this country only thing we get a say in is which bunch of lies we going to listen to or not voting in this country is absolutely pointless saying anything in this country is absolutely pointless i mean seriously what kind of moron sells gold at its lowest point ever (Gordon Brown our so called head of state)i dont recall voting for this wanker to be in control of our country i mean what is he a history major how does that qualify anyone to run a country i mean fuck me he got run out of scotland for telling lies to his voters up there i mean was there really a recession in this country or did that muppet just fuck up our finances that bad they can try and stop any movement they like but until they pull their heads out their arses they wont get nowhere i mean not long ago they passed a bill wanting to charge everyone a broadband tax to get our country into the new age pfffft what a fucking joke bt used to belong to the public now they sold it off (fuck knows where the money for that went) and now its privately owned and they want us to pay to update their lines just another great example of how the great british farce of a democracy works and people from all over the world want to move here they all must want their heads checking id rather live in middle of a war than live in a country run by a bunch of mugs

    [TF - It went through the house of Lords and gained Royal Assent today]

  • Happy Record Label CEO

    Sorry to burst your bubble, but you all had to purchase music before the internet or you had to borrow a copy from a friend. Now that this bill has passed, there will be Motion Picture & Music associations cracking down on File-Sharing online… And there will be more people going to trial for sharing files or trying to download illegally. Everybody who uploads or downloads copyrighted material have been breaking the law… its stealing… and now if you get caught you will have to pay the consequences. If you want music, buy it. If you choose to attempt to get it for free and get caught doing so, I hope you pay a $250,000 fee & go to prison for 5 years. Sorry I have to be so blunt, but enough is enough. Everybody will get their fair warning before people start going to trial, paying or being locked up.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this.

    A Happy Record Label CEO.

  • whattaDOUCHE

    @ NeoFAAG

    if you really think that fileSHARING is wrong, and that it is costing the ‘industry’ ANYTHING, then you are far more ignorant than we all thought you were.. this fixes nothing, solves nothing for the industry. movies and musics are not ‘must haves’, and are mostly crap. people have been DLing for the fun and novelty of it. we arent all gonna spend more ’cause we HAVE to get our ‘fix’ of mediocre content you nub..it will NOT generate “LOST” revenue, because it was never lost…

    im not going to try to teach you how to use your brain, because i dont believe you want to. live a life of tragic delusion if you like.
    filesharing will continue..

    personally, if i have to, i ll start using the REDBOX here in the states, where i can rent any movie for a SINGLE DOLLAR. repeat: ONE DOLLAR! take it home, copy it and return it.. FTW

    ps: the ‘industry’ tried to sue REDBOX for offering their DVD rentals so cheaply, even new releases for $1… as did blockbuster video.. they lost. $1 is at least reasonable for some crap entertainment. they re just greedy F U C K W A D S..

    but we ALL knew that, except NeoCLOWN…

    happy sharing all!!

  • Anonymous

    THE UK BECOMES HITTERS CHILDREN

    THE DEB BILL PASSES SATAN REJOCES BROWN MADELSON SHARKEY ONE STEP CLOSER TO HELL.

    Thanks to likes of rapists like Gordon brown Peter Mandelson, and not forgetting filthy face of idiocracy Feargal Sharkey, corrupt charities like ifpi bpi mpaa fact riaa.

    hey tax is like fileshareing maybe that sould be made illegal

    …..oh wait peter dose realy put the mad in Mandelson.

    to hell with these evil fuckers

  • Anonymous

    THE UK BECOMES HITTERS CHILDREN

    THE DEB BILL PASSES SATAN REJOICES BROWN MADELSON SHARKEY ONE STEP CLOSER TO HELL.

    Thanks to likes of rapists like Gordon brown Peter Mandelson, and not forgetting filthy face of idiocracy Feargal Sharkey, corrupt charities like ifpi bpi mpaa fact riaa.

    hey tax is like fileshareing maybe that sould be made illegal

    …..oh wait peter dose realy put the mad in Mandelson.

    to hell with these evil f u c k e r s

  • Anonymous

    Copy what ? The pinnacle of hypocrisy.

    http://thefrontline.v3.co.uk/2010/04/red-faces-for-l.html

  • Anonymous

    Happy Record Label CEO this ain’t America you fucktard

  • Jim

    I like the idead of overloading a party website.

    If someone wants to pick a site, day, and time, then count me in.

    I think I will use auto ping on port 80 for a hour or two.

  • dsanjsacnclkjnc

    anyone that has the same response as #7 can go ta hell, its time ta look for some private sites n continue the free downloading bcuz i heard that gas prices r gonna go up in some area n no one will wanna go out n spend $, which means dvd/cd sales r gonna go down, so EPIC FAIL on this new digital economy bill shit!

  • infektor

    I used to shop lift form HMV before I downloaded stuff, I would copy my mates CD’s to mini disc and before that I would tape the radio.

    On the other hand I pay for gig tickets and music festivals where musicians make their living.

    My point – they haven’t stopped me before and they won’t stop me now.

    Viva La Resistance!!!

  • The Mysterons

    It will be interesting if the allegation of entrapment will be used against the harvesting of IP addresses, which appears to involve asking a user to send part of a copyrighted file and then threatening them once they do.

  • whattaDOUCHE

    @ happy CEO CLOWN:

    you are a simple buffoon.

    bask in the glow of epic failness, but know that you have succeeded in nothing.. the only reason you can dress this up like a victory, in the same way you dressed up your prom date as a girl so people wouldnt find out about your gaynesses, is that internet activity is easier to track than analog activity. IE: we ll just have to share more the old fashioned way.. trading HDDs and such.. big deal.

    you set em up and we ll knock em down, Douchenozzle.

  • Le Fake

    @228

    I totally cracked.

    But hey, that article pretty much proves the point that they had actually no idea about what they slipped through the parliament.

  • Mad.Sr

    I remember the MPAA trolls after T.P.B was down, Mininova died say “You all have to buy it now”.
    But every year they keep announcing those pathetic numbers of losses $$$
    File sharing will LIVE4EVER ;)
    MPAA can go eat a DICK and CHOKE.
    XD

  • itmakesmeweep

    How stupid, they actually believe that this bill will stop dls? The genie is out of the bottle, I can’t wait to see them try and put it back in. We are more tech.able than them. “bring it on”.

  • Rabbit80

    @Everyone asking for a VPN recommendation..

    Try swissvpn.net – its cheap at around £3.50 per month, accepts paypal and has no download / usage limits. It also supports both normal and OpenVPN connections. Only one computer can access it at a time per account unless your router supports VPNs directly.

    @Everyone saying VPNs will be banned..

    No they won’t – this would have such a negative impact on UK business that it would be impossible to implement. VPNs are often used to connect satellite offices to their head office. VPN creating technology is included as standard with virtually any server software and all modern operating systems (Linux / Mac OSx / Winblows) have the capability to connect to VPNs directly. There are also many open source alternatives and many routers also support VPNs directly.

  • L

    We are Legion – Be more perceptive about your downloads, but never cower in fear of the borg.

  • kate

    @ happy CEO CLOWN:

    funny you missed the point of the bill not even you guys who wrote it know whats in the damn thing we will not get fined the isp gets fined also good luck when you shut down all those nasty websites like

    youtube
    twitter
    ebay
    google

    they hold more copyright stuff than any torrent site

    also you should check your stats the people you have just branded criminals are the ones who buy music not the best business model you have got there

    maybe if you let bands keep more of there cash instead of padding your own bank accounts oh sorry I forgot greed is good

  • the uk is a joke

    haha take it up the arse one more time Britain.

    The UK is a joke. They let anyone run their country be it USA or the middle east packi birgade.

    Keep taking it deep you crooked teeth crumpet suckers lolololol hahaha

  • kate

    can someone tell me how they will police this if I heard right the isp have to hand over all are net history to companies who check it and see if we have been bad and then they send the letters out

    how can they give out are net history to a company form say America or any other country

    or does this just cover the uk entertainment industry

  • saddened

    I’d really like to see an article about the truths and myths of this bill, theres alot of scare-mongering going on around the net about how ISPS like virgin and sky are monitoring badnwidth and asking customers for justifications without receiveing a letter first.

    We need a detailed run down of what the bill means for all internet users, and ways to avoid being trapped by this stupid law.

  • BPI 1 UTorrent NIL

    hahahahhahahhaa
    muhahhaahahahahahahahaahaha
    LOL
    LMFAO

  • Tomas

    This put through by people who think the IP in TCP/IP stands for intellectual property (http://i.imgur.com/1pXlO.jpg)

    Yes, I have much faith in this new system.

  • Al

    @210 Apr 08, 2010 at 22:14 by Anonymous

    “today 8 april 2010 i cant access the pirate bay when i have ipredator on ! if i disconect from ipredator vpn the site loads…what is going on ??”

    I noticed the same thing. Using Ipredator, i can’t access the pirate bay and trackers aren’t working. When i disconnect from Ipredator, the pirate bay works and the trackers work again.

    Anyone know what’s happening?

  • a

    well im wondering what will happened in next 5-10 years in this subject

    i guess the user will find always a way to tricks the system

    its show us how much those componites love money and power
    love to control :D
    they will loss very soon :D

    http://socialcapitalism2.wordpress.com/

  • kate

    a

    I bet that there are people working on torrent clients that cannot be traced right now as the whole world seems to be going this way with laws

  • anon

    @245 if anyone finds out why ipredator is stopping thepiratebay from showing please reply on this thread thanks

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  • Anonymous

    Good link: http://thefrontline.v3.co.uk/2010/04/red-faces-for-l.html

    To get on with the topic at hand though.. I am from Australia and am slightly worried something similar will be implemented here soon.

    Looks like I will have to look into this VPN everyone speaks of.

    In relation to the media companies and their “Lost Revenue” they have all the money in the world.. they are just being greedy!

    I refuse to pay money to people who honestly don’t need it, anyone who thinks the media companies are “honestly” being put out by piracy you are sad and ignorant, I feel sorry for independent studios etc.

  • Anonymous

    Anyone know what happened to that 38 degrees thingy?
    I donated and we were meant to be emailed but I got nothing.

  • Artist get paid pittance

    This is directed at:

    http://torrentfreak.com/digital-economy-bill-passes-file-sharing-end-soon-100608/#comment-651975

    and:

    http://torrentfreak.com/digital-economy-bill-passes-file-sharing-end-soon-100608/#comment-652028

    See http://payroll.getherb.com/tag/how-artists-get-paid/ and you will see that being an muscian pays less that lowest wage workers get.

    I recommend other posters to find other, perhaps better, examples.

  • Unauthorized Content Consumer

    Oh yes. This will stop piracy. Oh yes…the world will now spinning backwards and Simon Cowell will finally turn straight.

    Oh huh. xD

  • Anonymous

    Very nice article full of sarcasm! Thank you, TorrentFreak! )

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  • optimist

    1 word fuckers, FREENET.

  • Anonymous

    “TalkTalk one of the UK’s three biggest internet service providers has vowed not to co-operate with measures to combat file-sharing set out in the government’s controversial digital economy bill, expected to receive royal assent within days.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/08/internet-piracy-bill

  • peter

    “TalkTalk one of the UK’s three biggest internet service providers has vowed not to co-operate with measures to combat file-sharing set out in the government’s controversial digital economy bill, expected to receive royal assent within days.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/08/internet-piracy-bill

  • hammerjammer

    if they think that would stop me they are way off. i’ll go back to renting and copying movies. i dont need the internet.

  • Yo

    This shit will get bogged down in the courts and that will be the end of it.

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  • dncholas

    I just emailed enigmax explaining my view on this and I understand things seem very grim but this can actually be the beginning of a new revolution against the tyranny of Big Brother and Movie and Music industry whores. In short this site will only gain in followers because of this and should be the beacon of light for freedom and truth. Also, you guys have heard of VPN’s right?

  • strife

    Looks like it’s time for SSH tunneling & SFTP. See them block that shit.

  • kate

    looks like talktalk just got themselves 15 million more customers if they can do that

    I wonder how many more isp will take that stand because there only sanction is a 250 000 fine I am sure they could pay that very easily

  • Anonymous

    Except all the times I’ve used talktalk they’ve been shit

  • Name

    From a list of 193 sovereign states from this planet, the other 192 states doesn’t care about UK’s decision.

    UK the faster you fall off the internet the faster another country will take your place :)))))))))

    So yeah I think it’s a blessing for other countries to take your leading role in file-sharing, the faster you fall the faster another country will take your place. :))))))) SAD DAYS FOR ONES AND HAPPY DAYS FOR OTHERS.

  • Joe Mama

    bleh. screw it.

  • markie

    So filesharing ends. Now everyone goes to Rapidshare, Megaupload etc.

  • lazers

    Can’t wait till shit hits the fan. Mass outcry and rebellion followed by a revolution would be nice.

    Then again this is the UK after all, might be unlikely that most of the UK bother to do anything about the DEB…

  • anon

    Guess we now know how they are going to be paying for their election campaigns.

    If every one votes Lib-Dem these assholes may learn to listen to the people.

    The bill was forced through after a two-hour debate just after midnight, and now goes back to the House of Lords for final approval. If passed by the upper chamber the bill will need Royal Assent before it becomes law.

    Guess wee need to protest outside Buckingham palace.

    I will be campaigning against my MP who voted for it.

  • Snowgoon

    So does this mean every torrent site will have to shut down? or does this one affect the UK?

  • Snowgoon

    and these motherfuckers should go get a real fuckin job.

  • duane

    Looks like ipredator’s ISP is attempting some censorship, probably threatened with a large fine like they did with TPB last year (unless they blocked some sites in all of Sweden, though it’s unlikely).

    traceroute stops at cph-cr1.ams-cr1.bahnhof.net for me.

  • Snowgoon

    These people should find a real job.

  • kate

    name you do know that every country is looking at these laws so don’t get all happy so fast

    whats so funny they said downloading is stealing this from the people that stole millions in tax payers cash for there expenses

  • Grow.A.Brain.

    @263
    Umm..No – What part of
    this don’t you understand..

    “a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright”.

    Obviously there would be infringing content on both sites mentioned..

  • Also @263

    If you noticed the RapidShare owner is just about all ready to jump in bed with the corporations..

    Rapidshare should be avoided..
    DON’T RENEW MEMBERSHIPS!

  • Interested OZ

    We’ve got dumbass politicians in Australia trying to push through a similar bill (except worse)! Hopefully our numbnuts leaders (K.Rudd & Conroy) gain some understanding that this sort of censorship does NOT work anywhere in the world.

  • Rage

    FFFFFFFFUUUUU

  • Beezwax

    RIP Torrent Freak…:(

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  • lemming

    I may be in the US… but this scares the shit out of me

    I didnt really worry about the Chinese or Australian firewalls… US would never copy that… but with the decision that no government agency can protect net neutrality that just went through…

    someone in congress in the riaa’s pocket is bound to suggest something bad citing this bill…

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  • Back to the Old Days

    Remember how we used to swap cassette tapes ?, well, instead of swapping cassettes just swap memory cards, the only people that HAVE definitely lost out is the music industry for now the music and movie fans will be compelled to manually swap their tiny 32Gig memory cards or 1 TB Hard Drives. I’m waiting for my 1 TB Hard Drive filled to the brim with movies to arrive from a friend. fvck the MAFIAA and the clueless greedy wankers in government.

  • Bill

    Sharing is a GOOD thing

    – GOD

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  • Einstein

    I for one must admit that I TOTALLY underestimated the MAFIAA!! They obviously have an enormous amount of POWER, given to them by the Billion$ they make off of the hard work of content creators.
    I say seed and leech while you still can.

  • Cody

    So I just shared some movies online with a bunch of people using bittorrent

    that’s what the law says right, to share more movies and music?

    or am i confused?

  • Laurel L. Russwurm

    “A recent example is the US air force video, which it published,” noted Hemming. “Copyright exists with the US Government, who under the Bill could, and would want to, apply to ban WikiLeaks from the UK. That provision is clearly in the Bill.”

    Actually Hemming is wrong. The USA has nothing resembling crown copyright. Amazingly enough, the U.S. government does not copyright anything it produces. Everything is in the public domain, the idea being that taxpayers have already footed the bill, they should not have to a second time.

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  • VPN

    VPN company’s are going to do some good business from UK downloaders

  • DXdiag

    WE NEED GUY FAWKES BACK!

    In the mean time we should all use VPN’s and download more then EVER BEFORE.

  • Anon

    Guy Fawkes, the only man ever to enter parliament with good intentions.

  • Anonymous

    Luckly I live in Canada and can pirate all I like :)

  • JTK

    Sorry, what? I didn’t hear you, was too busy torrenting through my VPN…

  • VPN

    hahaha just brought a VPN subscription so fuck you DEB and it so dirt cheap that i might buy two to just smile at! Me-VPN-VPN-World!

  • Graeme Lambert

    I’d like to point out that the Digital Economy Bill does have some good parts, but due to the clearly bad parts and the way it’s being rushed through the wash-up stage and not debated is why the Pirate Party UK is against it.

    The good parts mainly relate to Channel 4.

    ISPs can be anyone. I could contact an ISP right now and sign up to be a reseller. When I get my first customer, that’s me, the sole trading ISP. I don’t have the time or manpower to police the Digital Economy Bill with that customer or any others that sign up, so what will happen? The maximum fine for an ISP not abiding by the Digital Economy Bill is £250,000.00, which would bankrupt small ISPs.

    Instead of creating legislation to combat advances in technology and new distribution methods, we should be encouraging the record industries to take a similar line to Nine Inch Nails, who as many people will be aware made $1.6mil from an album that they released for free download under the creative commons license.

    I’ll end by echoing the requests for donations from other members on here. We have now reached a staggering £3,800 at the time of reading this, which with what we already have, allows us to fund 6/10 candidates fully, plus 1 other candidate’s deposit. We need another £5,200 to fund candidates and then whatever else we raise will go to campaign funds to give us a fighting chance against the free spending big parties. Labour and Tories spent £35mil between them on their election campaigns in 2005 alone.

    Vote Pirate!

  • Anonymous

    they are letting criminals out of jail early,because there is not enough space in our jails,so i cant imagine a judge locking a file sharer up.
    there again we live in the uk,so who knows.

  • worried user

    4 things

    when will this take real effect?
    what are the %s of being caught?
    what are the likeliest outcomes of being caught?
    whats the best vpn?

    let’s stop moaning how crap our crap govt is and move on to the next fight. Organize ppl. Organize!

    also in reply to the musician bitching about how badly he is paid – stop being a fucking musician then. I want to be a writer but i’m clearly not good enough to do it for a living. I have a REAL JOB. Either work more or quit being a musician just to get laid you whining twat.

    ta.

  • worried user

    how about we all download like crazy when these things come into effect and make them take us all to court. How many millions of ppl?

  • nonams

    Devil save the queen!

  • Anonymous

    Downloading isn’t enough, we need to actively oppose the industry’s existence.

  • 9ninety9

    you pierates keep stealing, sure laws are going to get passed. you pierates brought this on your selves. quit your whining!

  • Brandon

    Yeh, so some stupid Lord, King or whoever the crap passes ANOTHER stupid law doesn’t mean you have to abide by it. 9 out of 10 people speed in their auto too. Thats illegal. IF EVERYONE does it what can they do? They have been doing this crap back when books came out ONLY Kings and Queens could read them. THEY wanted their Peons to be dumb… That didn’t go over well and the printing press was invented. Ergo Pirated books… I didn’t know the UK made any movies or music anyway unless Indie. I guess they are really hurting for money… What ever. Shame all the UK is getting screwed… We’ll see what happens…

  • Rabbit80

    @Everyone asking for a VPN recommendation..

    Try swissvpn.net – its cheap at around £3.50 per month, accepts paypal and has no download / usage limits. It also supports both normal and OpenVPN connections. Only one computer can access it at a time per account unless your router supports VPNs directly.

    @Everyone saying VPNs will be banned..

    No they won’t – this would have such a negative impact on UK business that it would be impossible to implement. VPNs are often used to connect satellite offices to their head office. VPN creating technology is included as standard with virtually any server software and all modern operating systems (Linux / Mac OSx / Winblows) have the capability to connect to VPNs directly. There are also many open source alternatives and many routers also support VPNs directly.

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  • DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS
  • Borderliner

    From the article, without going through the comments (which, I suspect, have already said that), 2 things seem obvious:
    - everyone in Britain STOP consuming public media. There are other places to spend your free time than go to the cinema; you don´t need to buy the latest CD, even if it´s from your favorite artist, you already CDs and there´s always the radio; you can live without the DVD of the show X. Let the mediamoguls see that if they really want people to stop “consuming” their media then the people can stop consuming their media. You have nothing to loose anymore, using your wallet to protest might have been an inconveniece (atlest partially) before, but now it is basically the only thing you can do.
    - everyone not living in Britain: keep your eyes on what´s happening. For the future, in case something like this comes to your country.

  • Sean

    I like what one person said about reporting every single site as copyright infringement to clog up their systems. Best of all you don’t need to be in the UK to do this.

    I suggest everyone go out and help our UK brothers ;)

  • anon

    well this is the last time im supporting the government u corrupt mofo F4GOTS, dream on about profits

  • me

    294 Anonymous: “they are letting criminals out of jail early,because there is not enough space in our jails,so i cant imagine a judge locking a file sharer up.”

    You don’t get it buddy. They’ll let MORE criminals out to free jail cells for the millions of expected convicted file sharers. In the twisted mind of those in power, regular criminals are not as dangerous to society as them file sharers.

  • T.H.E. S.W.A.R.M.

    WE ARE THE SWARM

    YOUR DATA WILL BE ASSIMILATED

    RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

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  • anonymous

    at ‘Happy Record Label CEO’. trouble with ignorant pricks like you is, you have ignored what was asked for months ago by your own customers in the form of making content available for download from your own severs, at good speeds, drm free, excellent quality and sensible prices. you took no notice of those requests, opting for the move you have taken. very few people were and are averse to paying for downloadable content. you are your own worse enemy! there was never any intention of trying to do anything other than what you have done. sooner than you think, it is going to come back and bite you and those in Parliament that were stupid enough to accept your ‘incentives’, well and truly in the arse!! with an election coming up in the UK, this is one subject that affects everyone, not just one sector, as many things do. to the Labour government, not the wisest of moves to keep yourselves in power. to the Conservatives, not the most sensible thing to do to back labour on this issue. to all MPs, ignoring what the people wanted, not the best way to keep your job! wonder how many votes are going to be lost over this one thing?

  • KEITH

    Wait a minute….

    This Bill was born in Mandeslon’s head whilst having dinner with The Rothschild Family and David Geffen (Dreamworks) at his Family Holiday Villa in Corfu….!!

    Sorry I thought the Music/Film Industry were LOSING Money….!!

  • Surys

    @Peter #27

    “Well, the U.K is pretty much a Muslim country now anyway.”

    4% population doesn’t equate to a takeover, with statements such as the one you made one can only assume you listen to the BNP?!

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  • Surys

    btw… this was supported by Conservatives too… so don’t think voting blue on May 6th will make any difference, it won’t.

    We’re lucky in the UK that we have a party that could some day snatch power away from the 2-party-scam, a party that often sides with the people rather than corporations.

    I’d love to vote PirateParty but that would be voting on a single wedge issue… so LibDem it is. :/

  • greylion

    Vote with your wallet.
    Don’t buy any movies or music until this nonsense has been abolished again.

  • John

    Newsgroups still live on ;)

    SSL encryption :)

  • MiffedUK

    Surely if peer-to-peer apps were redesigned to use 256 bit encryption and to work over port 80 (http port) then it would be very very hard to to identify the nature of the traffic?

  • Tomas

    @310 Surys
    I was also planning to vote LibDem, but only 1 of their MPs turned up to the debate so they clearly don’t care either.

    So I was going to vote Pirate, but I disagree on their effort to reduce the number of public security cameras.

    So I’m just not going to vote at all.

  • Cujo

    this political mumbojumbo is worthless when it comes to a coder cracking drm and sharing it. this just offers a little more of a challenge. the bureaucrats are adding to the excitement and the coders are just loving it

  • right

    @Music CEO

    You clearly don’t know how fast the internet is growing. This law will only affect the common users, you missed your piece of the cake when you wouldn’t have free drm + downloading. While your sitting in your chair trying to make your ‘plans’for the weekend. Each second a song or an album gets downloaded either from a friend,torrent,usenet, p2p is here to stay. There’s nothing you can do about it, different laws , different countries.

    Democracy? What happend to the rule “The customer is always right” ?
    “If you don’t give it a shot, you don’t know the results”

    Now FYI, I love to download tv-shows seeing it prob take months before they are live on my tv-channels. I also love to download films, seeing that also will take months before arriving at my country. I rarely download games, but heck if there’s no such thing as ‘beta’ or atleast ‘demo’ of the game. I always download it to try it out, whilst your milking your movies at cinema still “Hey look an DVD-SCR or R5″ Let’s download and buy the DVD / Blu-ray afterwards. But the thing is kids / youth can’t ‘buy’ things, they simply can’t afford it. That’s why they download movies,tv-shows,games,music. Heck they even stream it at low-quality streams, point is you already lost the battle before it had begun. Your ‘choises’ were the wrong ones, and now your taking the beat with a stick.

    And MPAA must be the most wasteful company ever to exist in the US. Wasting god knows how much money try ing to get the privacy consealed, while you could’ve made it public yourself and earn some money on the way.

    I’ve said mine, and i’ll keep saying it again. You lost get over it, stop crying like a 5 year old about it. Do something about it not against it. WORK AROUND IT

    Peace~

  • danjoe

    It seems like Hitler and the Nazis has won the War. Shame for you “Freedomfighters”! What would say W.Churchill?

  • kate

    so am I right in thinking there is no penalty in this if you upload stuff it just hits downloaders really sounds fair maybe we should just upload everything

  • kate

    also so now I cannot download the colbert report which is not even shown in the uk now

  • poole pirate

    let um do as they wish they will never stop people like me!!!

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  • linksfahrer

    Reading some of the comments posted here, I’m surprised by the number of people disappointed by the government not doing the ‘right thing’ – governments work for the people who pay them the most: and that isn’t you!
    He who pays the piper, etc.
    However, all is not lost! You just need to take the red pill and wake up to how the system really works. First of all you need to learn the difference between ‘law’ and ‘statute’ – the bills passed by governments are STATUTES not LAWS! Statutes, by definition, only become laws by the consent of the people – without your consent it is just another piece of paper. Do some research. Find out the difference between a ‘person’ and a ‘human being’. Here’s a suggested starting point: http://www.tpuc.org/node/315, watch the movies, explore the site – just be aware that once you enter this rabbit hole, there is no way back ;o)

  • lverona

    Okay. So the pirate problem is solved now. Let’s go home guys.

  • Pingback: File-Sharers Safe Until Music Biz Change Laws | InstantIdiocy

  • bryanskrantz

    Easy way to get around the filters. Use a Proxy or Open DNS.

  • Anon

    Wait isn’t this the same country that is afraid by being run in the future by the “Muslim NON-democratic law” ?

    The irony is just staggering.

    Goodbye UK, you have failed the world

  • Ray Boggiano

    This is a terrible outcome for the UK digital economy and the music industry. To jeopardise the freedom of access to the Internet in extremely useful free wi-fi networks and oppose their own fans and consumers is outrageous.

    Yes, illegal downloads are common, but single sales have never been higher in the UK since records began. Many studies have also shown that those who download illegally spend more money on music, such as buying records, concert tickets, and merchandise.

    The DEB simply diverts attention away from the much needed shift in emphasis from record sales to live music promotion. The Internet is a highly disruptive technology, and thus the industry must respond rather than continue to use their old out-dated business model.

    Not only this, but it is also an insult to UK democracy and judiciary as it was written and lobbyed by the record companies, and assumes guilt without fair trial; both of which are fundamentally wrong.

    If you have a couple of spare minutes then please read my blog on this at http://bit.ly/cmbzDZ. Cheers.

  • kate

    everyone on twitter is saying sue tor anyone know if it is good and will work

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  • JReeves

    Today i feel let down. Let down by my personal beliefs, let down by political beliefs, let down by my democratic representitives. I believe in a society structured around inclusion, not seclusion. After watching the performance that was the Digital Economy Bill debate i realised that Labour has lost this part of its socialist heritage. I do not beleive in piracy. I do not believe in theft. But when, by your own the admission, a basic human right such as the internet is being restricted and manipulated by government it saddens me.

    The government has subverted the democratic process which i trusted in, believed in, and have previously defended. Though perhaps not illegally, rather by subverting the ideals by which it claims to serve. A debate surely must be debated rather than whipped. Representatives should represent the views of their constituants, rather than twittering from their couches.

    Today is a sad day as I slowly begin to realize what many have always said may in fact be true. Your not serving man, or country. Only the businesses supporting you.

    Yours hoping this finds a voice, an ear or a pen.

    JReeves

  • Some Guy

    That’s it, it’s finished. The war is lost and the best part is the whole thing was pushed through in the highest spirit of democracy and with the full support of the people.

    -

    For a website supposedly closely monitoring changes in legislation regarding piracy you’re doing a pretty crap job.

    There has been HUGE public opposition to this bill. 20,000 people e-mailed their MPs, £20,000 was raised in a matter of days to get ads into newspapers about MPs rushing this into law.

    Get your facts straight.

  • dannyboy

    Fuck Corpotate america pushing it’s bullshit copyfucked laws on all of us around the world, i’ll never buy a dvd again, and believe me i have a lot of legally bought media…

    just like Rammenstein said “we all live in america, coca cola wunderbar”

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  • Al

    @328

    You really don’t understand sarcasm, do you?

  • Quickbeam

    We are in an arms race for internet freedom, and the bottom line is ‘Can we be anonymous on the Intenet’.

    Either a way of remaining anonymous will be thought up which is so simple it cannot be prevented
    or the Internet will become an interactive yellow Pages catalogue. Millions of people experienced
    the potential for real freedom in the 1960s, and then the world turned grey again.
    Don’t think the freedom of the Internet can’t be taken away as well.

    we can all see that the democratic process across the world is failing, and that there seems to be
    some force at work making this happen, althougn we can’t quite put our finger on what is happening or why.

    The truth about why the political process no longer makes any sense is hard to believe but well documented if you know where to look. Google the following in
    some depth if you want the answers:
    “CIA” “Labour party”
    “NATO Stay Behind Army”
    “Operation Gladio”
    “congress for cultural freedom”

    Read the Gladio book by Daniele Ganser (it’s on bittorrent), and read ‘The Grand Chessboard’ by brzezinski.

    Polititians know all this, they know it is out of control and can’t be stopped, and they have given up hope.
    You have no chance at all of resisting what is happening if you are not well read on all the above.

  • Kame

    You don’t any have rights, now. Because all communications are controlled. If you want to express something you’ll be shutdown for copyright infringement. I guess in the future will come up with some b…shit like “copyright terrorist” and shutdown any ip warrantless. And some lawers will take all your possesions and send you for 399 years to prison, where you will be raped and probably infected with an std. i guess copyright pirates are worst than serial killers, because they hurt the pockets of media execs , those poor basterds only have private jets, a few ferraris and a dozen mansions on expensive neighborhoods…

  • Anonymous

    oh jeez this makes me so cross: copyright infringement to be blocked, don’t you think thats perfectly fair??? creative products need to be protected. This will nurture artists and independent producers.. I can’t see how we have the ‘right’ to get pirated materials for free. What do you think copyright is? An obstacle?

  • Chilepete

    Was it April 1st yesterday??
    What a bunch of idiots.
    Even if we couldn’t share any more I will never go back to paying their ridiculous prices

  • rat9

    Stop giving record companies money. Ever. Vote with your cash.

  • me

    #302 Rabbit80: “VPNs are often used to connect satellite offices to their head office.”

    Well, they could make VPN use illegal for us individuals, and only legal for licensed companies.

    And remember how easy it was for them, once real money is involved: they bullied VISA/MasterCard et. al. to stop processing payments to AllofMP3, and that site was history in the blink of an eye (sure you remember). What makes you think they couldn’t do the same for VPN providers, eh?

    No, VPNs are just a stop-gap measure and a temporary hack that will serve us for a short little while. Real anonymous P2P is the future.

  • Name

    Don’t desperate people, they can do and vote whatever law’s they want as long as no one obey those laws everything’s OK ;)

  • Anonymous

    optical media + large HDD industry will take a hit.
    Piracy will now be a true black market with money to be made and the obvious price increase and associated criminal activities that will come with it!
    a note on copywrite/ IP..

    If I steal your car then I have infringed your property rights, and you are left without a car. If I copy your music, you still have your music, no theft has occurred!

  • pwned

    Major epic lol :D

  • DeltaPan

    @ 309 Apr 09, 2010 at 12:43 by Surys

    Could be UKIP supporter.

    Seems they parallel the racist views of the Bigoted Nutjob Party these days, being as one of their wanna be MP’s made a string of anti Islam comments and the UKIP party defended the vile diatribe.

    Now we know what UKIP are all about, ay.

    Just as vile as the Bigoted Nutjob Party, that’s official, UKIP seniors defended his right to be racially offencive as a parliamentarian, so UKIP think racism is perfectly ok even among their own members in public.

    A fracking disgrace!

    - – -

    I was saying i’d like to see post election structure as being Labour still in power, Liberals in opposition and UKIP as third party as they play advocate to everything which moves so will keep labour and liberals on their toes, with Tories voted into fourth division and into the scrapbook of commons history, now id rather see the Green party as fourth and Tories and UKIP off the political map completely.

    Wishful thinking i know.

    I am actually so annoyed with Labour over this, it’s lucky i believe in the greater good, after reversing the taxation hike on Cider which is an Alcohol abuse measure apart from anything else and has annoyed so many who want greater controls on alcohol in general as it’s destroying society, which in turn comes into reflex prohibition of any legal alternatives to Alcohol such as the banning of M,cat instead of regulated sale and education etc, then this, the rushing through in the wash-up of the D.E.B. instead of it being next year.

    I was considering giving my vote to the Liberal party, but as dictated by the greater good i cannot turn my back on Labour and Fabian philosophy, but man i was so bloody annoyed and still am.

    i am completely disgusted as to the manner this has been pushed through, there will be consequences comrades will have to deal with now, they should have listened to sanity and reason when people were pointing it all out to them, myself included the countless thousands of others.

    I am faithful to the party but they are definitely not making it easy and i don’t think as many are as forgiving as myself when it comes to keeping allegiance because of a greater social and economic good, before this i thought Labour would win another term, now i am not so sure, i think this disgraceful action has lost it for them, one can only hope such is not the case.

    Peace.

  • Pingback: File sharing becomes illegal in UK « Mostly Tech

  • Anon

    @210 and @212 &@252 & @249 are important everyone look at those comments
    as everones saying the answer is use a VPN yet ipredator VPN is blocking thepiratebay and ipredator is part of tpb !
    @274 says tpb ‘s ISP is blocking Swedish sites eg ipredator … Is this fact ? Torrentfreak we need an article on this situation because if ipredator blocks tpb you can’t get torrents annonymously

  • Touchmetiger

    Good bye Great Britain, it was nice having you in the free world for as long as it lasted. The rest of us will be along shortly.

    This is the part where the general public comes to discover just how easy it really is to live without the crappy movies the studios produce, how reading books doesn’t actually hurt your head.

    This is the part where musicians begin to produce music without the help of music conglomerates, just so they will have some kind of audience.

    This is the part where Google pulls out of the UK and sets up shop on the Isle of Wight. I’m just saying.

  • earthdroid.net

    Its not the end of the world boys and girls – its the kick up the proverbial we all need to start using streaming sites and VPNs. Long live Ninja Video!

  • me

    First of all, I feel sorry for all the small independent film makers and bands who will have a lot more of a strugle to get their work out to people – One of the reasons why I feel this law is only aimed at making big business big money.

    Secondly, can we now assume that people in the uk will be offered a safe, convenient, non-restrictive and reasonably priced method to buy their movies online?
    As far as I know there is no such service of reasonable practicality available and no intention of ther bieng one.

  • UK Govt 1 – FS 0

    The government is a step closer to pulling the plug on your Internet if you’re caught illegally downloading — but the 50p ‘broadband tax’ has been scrapped.

    The Digital Economy Bill, which sets out plans to disconnect copyright infringers, was passed in the House of Commons last night. A shameful 5 per cent of MPs were present for a debate on the bill, our sister site ZDNet UK reports. It was bundled through in the ‘wash-up’, a period when laws are fast-tracked before parliament dissolves for the general election. Any questions on the bill? Fire away.

    How does the bill work?
    Copyright holders, such as record or film companies, can crack down on illegal filesharing. When a copyright holder spots what it thinks is a violation of its copyright, it must send evidence to ISPs within a month. Copyright holders can also demand anonymous lists of suspected copyright infringements from Internet service providers (ISPs).

    What does the bill mean to me?
    If you’re accused of illegal filesharing by a copyright holder, your ISP will be forced to send you a letter asking you to stop your beastly behaviour right this minute. Should this fail to deter you, copyright holders can then directly target you after applying for a court order to demand your name and address from your ISP.

    Could my Internet be cut off?
    If you continue with your naughty behaviour, ISPs can suspend your Internet connnection. ISPs can be fined up to £250,000 for failing to do so. Even if you aren’t breaking the law, it’s possible you may be accused of dodgy downloading if you share an IP address with someone who is breaking the law. A major criticism of the bill is that it doesn’t appear to take account of technical loopholes, like someone stealing your Wi-Fi or using a public connection to do their despicable downloading.
    ************************************Well at least I aint gotta pay 50p a month tax so ya freeloaders can have your warez for paying sweet F@ck-all

  • Pingback: Digital Economy Bill Could Allow Governments To Block Wikileaks | Techi.com

  • omg

    the only thing that will change here is that we will go underground again and find more secret / anonymous way to share our stuff

    way to go ! instead of making money with sharing make it go harder to stop :)

    torrent site may be dead but sharing never will !!

  • M.C.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, putting all differences and politics aside, here in the United States we are going in the same direction at an alarming rate. Having bills passed that the people vehemently oppose. Spending is out of control.

    As patriots of our countries we all need to stand up and restore the dignity of our respective nations. There is no denying that that the U.S. and U.K. are fine ladies who have grown old and senile.

  • Rechar

    Rather than some long winded response, i shall quote a film (i downloaded, hur hur)…

    GIVE US, US FREE!
    GIVE US, US FREE!
    GIVE US, US FREE!
    GIVE US, US FREE!
    GIVE US, US FREE!

  • kate

    UK Govt 1 – FS 0

    I cannot wait till you try and block facebook youtube google you have just criminalised 90% of the people that buy the crap you churn out each year good luck in getting those sales back look at sweden and france 3 strikes came in file sharing went up

  • IHeard

    @351

    Gordon Brown is a bully ( as recently publicised ). If he was to get back in to government he would build in concessions for big company’s like Google etc. He just likes screwing the little guy. Only interested in the people when creating new taxes.

    If I had a choice I would get shut of them all.

  • lolololol

    Darn, I guess I’ll have to go to my local record shop and buy some cd’s! Wait, what?

  • lolololol

    Did they completely ignore the report stating that illegal downloaders buy MORE music than others? IDIOTS! All I have to say.

  • Colin

    can anyone tell me

    1) if i use my neighbours wifi to download and he uses mine do we have a good defence?

    2) if ISPs have to send out letters could they charge the “creative industries” something like £10 or £20 per letter, like a bank does?

    In the unlikely event that my MP knocks on my door during the election campaign, I will ask him why he never even replied to my email about this bill.

  • Reasonable Soul

    Colin, both you and your neighbour will get in trouble that way.

    It will be the responsibility of the bill payer to ensure that his/her wifi is secure, mac filtered, strong passphrases, etc. Only serious hackers are able to crack those, not your next door neighbour.

    You will be guilty straightaway until you can prove your innocence, which at the moment there are no way to fight it.

    In short, if someone in your household is downloading you’ll be the one who get’s into trouble, disconnection, fines, court appearance, threatening letters will be sent to you by blood sucking solictors on behalf of the music and entertainment industry.

    God, I love democracy!

  • Gonzo

    Democracy is dead in Britain, and it’s one sad day, heard a few morons up there saying vote BNP. Don’t know how that would make things better, their policy of splendid isolation and anti-globalisation/anti-capitalist stance would truly make us into a third world country, on a par with North Korea, they’re basically a bunch of racist socialists, nothing right wing about them.

    Back to the subject, it’s not just P2P, there already are hints that access to rapidshare may be completely blocked by certain ISPs (Virgin and Talk Talk), this is pretty much the start of our Great Firewall. Only option, emigrate from this potential dictatorship we’re heading into! As Brits we’re on camera like 99% of the time, there is already talk of a database to store every bit of communication, texts,emails, phone calls, sites visited etc for one year, they want a DNA database regardless of whether a person is guilty or not. It’s not paranoid, when they’re really ut to get you lol

  • guyfawkes

    ENJOY MY VPN
    ENJOY TRACKING MY ENCRYPTED DATA FULL OF TORRENTS
    LOL
    U LOSE DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL

  • kate

    @ 352 thay cannot we all know the biggest torrent search engine is google and youtube is full of copyright stuff if they dont ban it then any site they do can do them in the courts you cannot apply a law for some and not for others

  • SidiousRulZ

    This is what I think,

    1 Blocking torrent sites won’t work, this is very easy to get around. China can’t block sites for its citizens so what chance have these bozos got!

    2 Cobbling internet speed won’t work, this has been worked around for ages.

    3 Suspending internet accounts won’t work. Again with the right kit easy to get around.

    4 Encryption in the future is almost certainly going to improve.

    And finally

    5 There will be a huge number of totally innocent people accused of file sharing as wireless hacking goes through the roof. (hopefully forcing a review the bill)

    Only Noobs will get caught and the hardcore pirates will get away!

    Pirates 1 : Gov 0 Guaranteed!

    I’m not for copyright infringement but I am against this bill. The whole thing is guilty until proven innocent, and that in my opinion is wrong and unconstitutional. It’s the same thing with driving as well. The driver is guilty of everything and just another money making scheme. How long will it be before we see the same with the internet?

    The bill also relies heavily on conviction by IP address which we know can be spoofed, stolen or faked. Therein is the fatal mistake, if a case comes to court where it can be proven that identification by IP address is not solid evidence then the cartels will be royally screwed!! They will have no way to identify people for file sharing.

  • sean

    I guess we (US and UK) still have that “special relationship” touted for a long time. Sounds like your MP’s listen about as well to the people as our Democrat Representatives and Senators. Right now, the battle cry here is becoming, “Remember, remember the Second of November,” (our next national election date, when we’ll do some long-overdue ‘House-cleaning’)

  • Sneakernet

    You’re all invited to my flash party where you all bring your media volumes and we share, share, share

  • IHeard

    @357 – kate

    They did something similar when farmers and hauliers set out with rolling road blocks because of fuel prices. They got concessions to help with their businesses. Same will apply here. People unaware of what is going on will be made examples of. A lot of this will go unnoticed as the Media industry will keep it quiet. People will be fined and nothing will be aired.

    We, in the UK, can choose a Government who will at least look into this law and add some reasoning. May 6th is where it starts.

    Also, I’m sure more solutions to protect people will be developed before the first of any prosecutions, if any, come spring 2012.

  • Static

    This is just plain disgusting.
    I am going to have to get involved in some sort of protest or w/e
    but whats the point of those they don’t work…

  • Jigsy

    I’m surprised there isn’t a regulation that criminalizes Broadband/Cable/etc. and forces everyone back on to Dial-up.

    I mean, with 56K, you’d hardly be downloading much.

    Or is this idea still yet to come?

  • MR X (screw The Bill)

    im sorry but the law is not going to stop me.

    its still illigal to download copyright material at the moment.

    so what is a new law document gunna do for me . hmmmmm nothing lol

    Oink was set free and all his admins

    UK we have nothing to worry about. The goverment Will cock Up and there are always loopholes in the system

  • MR X (screw The Bill)

    also why are companys giving us more and more internet speed.

    they no what we are using it for and thats why they provide us with more speed.

    also this bill will not stop people. its apart of life for most teens and modern age people

    also how can they prove what i am downloading.

    just because i am runnng utorrent doesn’t mean i am downloading illigally.

    most of the time i am download linux on utorrent that is 100% free

  • Jigsy

    @365: Isn’t it obv?

    It’s to read your e-mail.

    Reading your e-mail @ 100 Mbps = teh win.

  • Anonymous

    The Pirate Party may be a one issue party but this is a very big issue. DEBill may well end up putting the UK into an Internet ghetto. This will have massive economic ramifications.

    @Tomas voting Pirate is better than not voting at all.

    The Pirate Party will be lucky to get anyone elected in their 1st election. If they did it would certainly help fight DEBill. It isn’t like they can get a majority with only a handful of candidates.

    Even if you can’t find it in your heart to vote Pirate, maybe you might want to send them £10 so they can at least afford to register their candidates. They are the only party you KNOW will fight DEBill.

  • kate

    well I went for a meal today at a hobby horse pub and the manager said he would be shuting his wi fi down as he could not risk a massive fine

    guess they are getting what they wanted its always about control

    btw when does this all start right away or do we have time to download a bunch of stuff

  • Jigsy

    Starts from 2011/2012 I believe.

  • james

    Digital Economy Bill – http://depill.me/

  • Alexander

    I have been using this free software for a while, on my mac – http://hotspotshield.com/ – it hides and re-locates my IP. A free VPN and it’s piss easy to run and use.

    This bill doesn’t discourage or scare me, but it saddens me that democracy lost.

  • Leon

    I just wanna say, OneSwarm F2F.

  • aikiwolfie

    When this bill is fully enacted and sales of music and movies continue to drop it will be interesting to see who the music and movie industry leaders will blame next. This bill is simply a painful convulsion in the death throws of a dying business model. Sooner or later there will be no more room for excuses. No body else left to blame.

  • adapt

    soon we’ll have to use the postal service
    i better get some stamps lol

  • Carcass

    Hands in another’s pocket
    The bed they make
    Is not the one in which they lie
    The same old faces
    The same old establishment
    The same old lies
    Cross your ‘x’
    It’s your only voice
    Do as you’re told
    Stay in line
    Don’t rock the boat
    And buy what you’re sold

    Believe the lie
    The lie that you’re told
    Doing fine
    Just do as you’re told

    No dissident voices
    The faces merge
    Are one, absolute
    A comfortable, privileged
    White over belly
    Revolution
    No threat, no change
    No gain, just pain
    The same old scheme
    No hope, no choice
    No future, no voice
    This is no pipe dream
    All is not what it seems

    Believe the lie
    The lie that you’re told
    Doing fine
    Just do as you’re told
    Believe the lie
    The lie that you’re told
    Doing fine
    Just do as you’re toldIs this rock’n'roll or a form of state control?

    Is this really rock’n'roll?
    Or a form of state control?

    Believe the lie
    The lie that you’re told
    Doing fine
    Just do as you’re told

    Believe the lie
    The lie that you’re told
    Doing fine
    Just do as you’re told

    Believe the lie
    The lie that you’re told
    Doing fine
    Just do as you’re told

    Is this rock’n'roll or a form of state control?

  • kate

    @ 374 Leon

    does OneSwarm F2F work in this case as its the isp who are seeing what we download will it stop that if so I will download it now

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  • Paul

    It’s quite interesting that this law was pushed through by Ben Bradshaw MP. In 2008, when Bradshaw was a Health Minister and the dept of Health were banned from Wikipedia, Bradshaw stated:

    “Wikipedia has blocked the Department’s IP address for creating or amending entries,” Bradshaw notes. “Information on the Wikipedia site indicates that this has occurred because it has identified the IP address as being shared by many users.”

    Source – http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/172614/department-of-health-banned-from-wikipedia

    So Bradshaw knows several computers can be behind one IP address yet he still pushes this through as though the IP address owner is responsible for everything on that address

  • storm

    you know, i was wondering. All the tv series out these days which are advertised to us.( you guys know all this so I will be brief) even the soundtracks are available now. The pressure to buy all this stuff just to stay in the “loop” is tremendous as it is to buy for our kids.

    Who do I know that can afford ton own it all? no one. most people I know would have given up on music and television if it wasn’t for the ability to share, and buy when possible. Share when it’s the only way to make it accesssible. Hell piracy can be one of the only ways I have to keep up witht the world!

    These events are none different from any in the uk’s sleezy past. In fact this is quite minor, any of you that were hoping the uk might pave the way. I am sorry, but even if we didn’t asuck up to the us so much, we are obsessed with tax and control…we were never gonna be leaders for sharing.

    As fopr the people, well this has given me an attitude adjustment. I dotn know which way this war will end, I think maybe unfavourable for us. “the pirates” which in MOST CASES also means “the customers” as we tend to be both. The idea of a “pirate” is quite pathetic . we are all pirates give or take.

    Nope the proper british response to this is:

    Fuck you! No more compromise, MORE funding to isohunt. MORE DOWNLOADIN|G i will max out every connection I can get my hands on. I will use every technical advantage I have and I WILL not back down. No longer open to debate, if law is not important to talk about then fine we wont talk we will fight.

    I will download what I do not need to , I will jam up ther lines. And i will still circulate FREE copies of the thingsd my friends and I are unable to afford so we may at least share the experiences together. And that will never EVER change. Unless you are prepared to copyright the vary earth we live on.

    To my fellow CONSUMERS in the uk, carry on. dont be phased. just be protected. But next time you see that blu ray in asda or tesco..before tyou pick it up to pay your hard earned money. Think about this and if you really want to part with it.

    I will be holding my money BACK for a while as i see how this pans out, we could cost them a LOT of money if we worked together.

    What I really dont understand is why the rules of the whole world are chqanging just because hollywood got itsel;f all upset. I dont give a shit about holluywood like they haven’t about anyone outside the us for thier existence..so why cant they fuck off back where they came from(no offense to us citizens not about you).

    I wish I lived in spain LOL .

  • Reasonable Mind
  • Reasonable Mind
  • tosser

    I don’t remember voting for any of this.

    DEB was created by an unelected minister of an unelected government.

    WTF? Democracy FAIL.

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  • neb

    Make billions?

    Rubbish. They will lose money.

    Darn movies ain’t worth the watch anyway.

    Only the lawyers make money out of this stuff. And they don’t care.

    They are playing both sides against the middle using the law.

    I say it’s time for a rewrite……..

  • Z

    Filesharing websites are still up and running like normal.

    April Fools Day was a last week…

  • Ben Hurr

    April fools idiots

    -oh wait, they actually did it???

  • Barry g

    The usual pro-theft drivel from the kiddies here.
    the bill wasnt rammed through. there was a democratci vote by grown adults who udnerstand the need for people to be paid for their work.
    thus the sensible bill was passed.
    Excuse us if we dont care what a bunch of dumbass hippie thieves think.

  • Darby

    The only solution is to murder your MP if they voted for this atrocity.

    That is the unbreakable rule of a civilized society. If you break this ancient and hallowed rule and allow them to live after this, you will never have anything approaching a free society again.

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  • Barry g

    The bill was rammed through and voted in democratically by adults who don’t know what goes on behind the industry. The artist is restricted by contracts and will receive little if any money from product sales unless they’re very successful. Same goes for everybody else on the lower end of the totem pole. Most of the money still stays in the hands of the execs…

    Excuse us if we don’t care about what some corporate pig that don’t know about how the internet works thinks.

  • Sanity_Vocal

    World wide boycotts of all sales and rentals of music and video products should be carried out in the UK to show displeasure. Say 1 week. If the public is displeased with the measures, a 1 week boycott of all related products will show displeasure of the consumer. Walk the talk with the wallet.

    Let the Music and movie companies, and the creeps in parliament beware.

    Also, voters in UK can most importantly answer to this affront by parliamentarians with their fingers – by voting for the opposition. Or even boycotting the elections if both parties are rubbish. Or even vote for the pirate party.

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  • Will

    UK politics don’t look very fair to an outsider like me.

  • ubetido

    In a country where everyone is watched by a gazillion cameras every time they step out and think that its ok, I am not really surprised that is bill got through.

  • M

    zarvensha has the right idea on digg:

    http://digg.com/tech_news/Digital_Economy_Bill_Passes_File_Sharing_Ends_Soon

    not sure how possible it is off the top off my head tho.

  • god

    Remember for every high wall there is an even higher ladder.
    Whatever anybody does or says it can be broken.
    I’m with Vermin, any letter from them will get a phone call from me telling them to stuff their business up their rutpiece.
    In any case you dont need the internet for file sharing, these other methods will force bulk file sharing and be quicker.

  • anonatron

    Tech will always beat politics because politicians do not advance with half the rate that tech does. Since the days of mix tapes piracy has been available to the general public. It will not stop now.

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  • Ray Fatsoma

    The DEB is ridiculously flawed. The negative repercussions on our society and economy as a whole hugely outweigh any potential gains from combating piracy in this way. It’s an insult to democracy by being so blatantly written and pushed through by lobbyists from the BPI and other “music industry” figures. It ignored the British judiciary system by assuming guilt in the absence of proof (IP addresses cannot prove guilt in a court of law). It jeopardises our young digital economy, by eroding the chances of gaining truly wireless cities, and removes any incentive to provide free wi-fi areas.

    What’s more, it is unlikely to have any effect on file-sharing, as is evident when you look at Sweden as a case study, where file-sharing has risen since their anti-piracy laws, just now it is encrypted. Instead the record companies who wrote this Act should be focusing on live music promotion as their primary revenue stream rather than protecting an old, out-dated business model.

    For my blog on the implications of the DEB please go to http://bit.ly/a5rnUk. Cheers.

  • medved

    PREVED!!!

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