Mandelson Gets His Own Digital Economy Bill Protest Song
Written by enigmax on November 27, 2009Back in September, thousands of Internet users tapped their feet to the brilliant open letter on piracy, sent to Lily Allen by musician Dan Bull. As November draws to a close, Dan is back again, this time taking a swipe at everyone’s favorite twice-fired, unelected politician Lord Mandelson and his controversial Digital Economy Bill.
When Lily Allen inflamed the UK, and indeed, much of the Internet with her views on piracy a couple of months ago, it was difficult to see who could come along and create more controversy on the issue. But of course, Britain has a secret weapon – Peter Mandelson.
Lord Mandelson, or ‘Mandy’ to those speaking of him affectionately, has truly set the cat among the pigeons with his Digital Economy Bill, pleasing almost no-one apart from Big Music and Big Movies, and alienating everyone from most of the ISPs in the country through to millions of Internet users.
In protest, ISP TalkTalk is running the Don’t Disconnect Us campaign, which is gathering great momentum after being endorsed by Stephen Fry earlier this week, and hopefully will receive yet another boost with the help of some catchy music and cutting lyrics.
Yes, just when you thought it was safe after ‘Dear Lily’ – musician Dan Bull is back, this time with a new track – ‘Dear Mandy’.
“I’ve just recorded and uploaded a new video, aimed at Peter Mandelson, and getting people to sign the petition against his three strikes bill,” Dan told TorrentFreak.
“The most worrying part of the Bill is that Mandy has given himself the power to create new legislation as he pleases, meaning he can pretty much do whatever he wants to people he suspects of copyright infringement,” added Dan, echoing the autocracy fears outlined by the Liberal Democrats last week.
“This is one of the most serious threats to privacy and presumption of innocence in the UK for a long time. I would urge people who are concerned about this to contact their MPs, and sign the petition, Dan concluded.
Here is Dan’s great new track – ‘Dear Mandy’ – and UK citizens, don’t forget to sign the petition!
Readers interested in hearing more about Dan can jump over to our side-blog over at FreakBits where we have published an interview.
Dan’s MySpace page can be found here and his album ‘Safe’ is available from FreshNut but can also be downloaded digitally from iTunes, Amazon, Napster and all good file-sharing networks.
Previously: 10 Alternatives To Mininova
Next: IsoHunt Asks Court to Legalize Its Operations
51 Responses
Good lad Dan… gotta keep the message viral. Even older non-savvy folks are getting educated now! :)
Mandelson or any other jerk and can now play with the law with the Big Content money and resources and get those laws passed in the Parliament to shove it up the arse of the general public – get them sued in thousands ( with the help of money hungry law firms or may I say bullies like Davenport Lyons and other ACS bullshit ) And frankly the consumers ( students, housewives or a store owner ) can do shit about it !
That’s the reality !
I am not surprised that an indexing site which does not even track the torrents has got taken down ( well almost ..there’s nothing there now ! ) and BRIEN is celebrating..
So what can we, consumers do ?…even though we have bought music and movies since we had our first pocket money in hand and now with the changing times have also started sharing those and getting the same from others – we are still being called Thieves AND the politicians have agreed and passed the law !
Ashamed to be a British and ashamed to be living in this time !
BTW ..I’m still surprised that TF has not been targeted as a site promoting BitTorrenting …since indexing can be made illegal, it won’t be long when blogging about torrenting is also made illegal !
C’mon Mandelson – take that up as your next mission !!!
Seriously, why doesn’t someone draw a bead on this prick?
i think i’m just gonna get up and fcuking kill him.
easiest way about it really..
Mandelson is a twat.
That is all.
I wanted to sign the petition but I don’t live in the UK. Pity, it’s something that eventually affects all of Europe.
forget this dude, he’s lame
http://www.emule-project.net
talktalk are hypocrits and only appear to publicly support file-sharing because it’s fashionable and want to gain more customers. in reality they throttle the living christ out of torrents leaving you with about 3k/s download speed.
I was told by someone much smarter than me that this would never be accepted in this government and probably not the next….we will see
Oh and while i feel like having a rant… i dont have a job now because of the useless government and the laws they make on banking. I barely have enough to pay for a connection to the internet now… along with a few 100,000’s of other people. Ive paid taxes out of my ass for years and now im expected to live on my savings while our Lord Mandelson and the government flounder around trying to sort the train wreck they caused….. New laws on internet is not needed…JOBS FOR THE PEOPLE ARE.. We cant buy it if we dont have any jobs to earn money.
Rant over…
TF–Thank you for your reporting! Best site on the web, well, next to some torrent sites.
Damn! This was brilliant!
way to “stick it to the man” put a smile on my face.
VOTE LiB DEMS; 2010 iS THE YEAR SOMETHiNG RiGHT GETS DONE!
@10
I totally second you.
Being jobless for nearly 6 years now, only earning a little money left and right for very limited times.
But these people think people without jobs deserve their situation, so they should hide in caves and be happy for the rich ones who get fat stealing public money.
I’m so sick of those guys, their only interest in life is profit, should they kill half of mankind to increase their income.
Keep going dan :D Only next time try something new.. Dear -whoever- is getting old
mandelson is a thug and a brute nothing more, he’s far too old and backward to embrace new technology
we all are not stupid.if we are on sites like this we have brains.
look at what these greedbag companies are doing.
i no longer will buy and refusae to buy any new movies or any corporate music.
buy greedbag stuff used or pirate it.stop feeding the pig.
I like that bull!
Lilly Allen or whatever her Jewel wanna be douchbag name is can go down in flames. I will never listen to her wineybag crap or EVER buy a cd…
its all ultimately pointless, anyone with any sense will just switch to VPN for about £5 a month and carry on. What then !!!
@21 What then? They make it mandatory for people/buisness’ to have a licence to use a VPN.
A bill like this will never pass. Especially from the likes of this twat.
If this isn’t enough reason to remove the peer system in parliament I don’t know what is, a clear abuse of privilege and power.
Mandy, roll up your bill and stick it where the air quality is questionable:
http://www.lucente.org/blog/media/1/20080109-drugs.gif
Is this song downloadable from anywhere?
@14 I agree, and if we fail, I will officially be a part of any riot that goes on protesting the copyright laws! ;)
@26
You can use a site like http://www.mediaconverter.org/ to rip the audio from the youtube video. Easy as pie :)
Hmmm…
TalkTalk may be using this as a platform to promote themselves, but the petition is still valid (and I have signed it).
The government **must not** be able to declare you guilty of something without giving you the chance to prove your innocence. This would truly be the beginning of the end.
@22 Leo
There is NO chance that they could introduce licensing or restrict VPN’s. All Windows software and Linux software has had the ability to connect to them for years.. Many businesses rely upon them to operate… I have over 30 VPN connections that I use on a regular basis connecting me to my clients networks – I also have several that I use from home, such as the connection to my office – and my anonymising VPN to hide my internet usage (mainly to overcome speed throttling by my ISP)!
Peter Mandelson – head crime leader with to much money. will they own the goverment next lol
Another great song Dan Bull!
The technically savvy will always win. someone woeking a 9 to 5 job trying to combat this will never stop someone whose hobby it is, they have more time and incentive to carry on.
I think Mandy should immediately resign and not pass go nor collect $200.00 and go to Jail. Obviously this guy is corrupt as they get. Clearly a paid off puppet of the so called entertainment industry, using mafia like techniques to strong arm their business model on the public.
When I hack your computer, traverse the firewall, use you as my personal VPN for a few file-transfers and then wipe traces of my activity…
Mandelson will be the weasel making sure you have no defense and are assumed guilty of my crime.
Thank Mandelson.
@X Why hack somebodys computer? I’m pretty sure any WEP enabled router is even easier!
That was really rather good! I do believe I’ll go check out more of his stuff now. Thanks, TorrentFreak!
ROFL ahahahaha amazing song. Thumbs up for this one.
I think I’m gonna donate 5 bucks for him just cause it made me lmao!
Mandyyy, no1 wants this approved, open your eyes hahaha
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/
Ive SIGNED the petition
and so should YOU!
@38
Not only did I sign the petition, but I also wrote to my MP! (And so should YOU!)
http://www.writetothem.com/
;)
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
i just like the fact that a Dan Bull from OZ who is also an indie musician has written a song to support the musical message of the Dan Bull from the UK, although ive seen enough to recognize the fact that our(the general public) thoughts/feelings/concerns will be ignored by our governments around the the world, infavor of those with money (who can afford to by the affections of those in power)
I am personaly awaiting the day when my connection gets cut off due to the very small amount of credable amount of music (which i already own) that i download gets me flagged and thus cut off (due to not having a receipt for my purchase pre all this debarcle)
Freedom for music and freedom to expresion!
@35
Because he wanted to make it look like Mandelson was downloading the copyrighted materials, and not just anybody.
But seriously, if i lost my internet connection i would be screwed.
No e-mail?
No news?
No e-banking?
All because a flatmate downloaded something he already owned which was copyright?
This is so flawed it will never go through as-is.
@42 unfornunatly your going to have to live with the fact that money controls power and Mandy (amoungst others is corputable) plane and simple, youll just have to get used to the fact that your living in revolutionsry times (and that things may not go as you want them to)
Its been the same for all peoples all thoughout ALL off history ( 3500bce etal),your either going to have to get used to it or make a revolution. (either of which is unlikely, asper history)
Bah, us British don’t have revolutions (… unless it’s of the industrial variety)
No, what we’ll all end up doing is sulking/moaning about it, and not actually doing anything to change it.
Nothing is sweeter than the status quo – even if the status quo means the law doesn’t make any sense.
Fortunately, the law is on our side.
I’m not implying that disconnecting people is a breach of human rights or anything, after all, human rights are simply a social construct.
No, what i mean by the law being on our side, is that the legal system is like a patchwork quilt.
When there’s a hole, you make a bit of legislation to patch it up again.
What Mandelson wants to do is sow in a nice mural into our quilt.
Unfortunately for him, the quilt works fine without the mural.
Some people don’t like his stitching, some people love it – but at the end of the day it will confer no benefit to anyone, and as such will never make it onto our quilt.
In other words, law in the UK is very pragmatic, very utilitarian.
These laws don’t help consumers nor do they really help distributers of copyright works, and as such will never get into law.
End of.
Fantastic song! Sharing the link on all interweb communities to wonderful feedback. Bravo Dan!
Rap Sucks!
@35… but that involves effort… my point was, from here I can infringe on copyright as much as I like, limited only by the upstream of the victim…
Other people can be assumed guilty and punised… all for my actions…
Mandy’s proposals will increase VPN usage, and for those that don’t wish to pay… may well just encourage them to exploit other people’s connections.
Professional infringers (for profit infringers) will make sure they stay out of sight… and innocent people will be found guilty of infringements they might not have even commited.
The song is nice actually!
Ha, love that song! *downloads*
http://lordsoftheblog.net/2009/12/02/digital-economy-bill/
I found a HOTTEST interracial club =MixedConnect *.* C0M=for black Women and white Men, or black Men and white Women, to interact with each other. Interracial is not a problem here, but a great merit to cherish!
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