Pretty predictably, the bill has been sent to wash-up (http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2260871/digital-economy-bill-wash).
Basically that means that it's likely to be rail-roaded through, as predicted. So unless someone puts the brakes on and stops the relevant parts, (and they only have tomorrow to do it apparently), watch all the anti-piracy measures in the bill get circumvented, just as happened in France a few weeks ago. Oh, and by the way, legal purchases of media will now go down. Both the government and the media companies will get what they deserve out of this stupid bill.; a lot of angry customers and voters. Unfortunately, a hell of a lot of innocent people are going to be branded criminals along the way. Also, and I've only just found this out, independent creators are going to be extremely p*****d off. Apparently Clause 43 allows the big media organisations, such as the BBC and news sites to use so-called orphaned works without having to make any effort to trace the owner of the copyright. Stand by to find your pictures in the newspapers and on the BBC website without attribution or payment. -- Terry Coles 64 bit computing with Kubuntu Linux -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Wed 2010-04-07 20:00 http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2645413 Chat: http://www.mibbit.com/?server=irc.blitzed.org&channel=%23dorset List info: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dorset