The Digital Economy Bill that recently passed in the UK and is being pushed upon many other countries around the world. It has some very discouraging text in it that could hurt innovation, forcing the methods of old on people and ways of new.
But all that pales in comparison to what this bill could allow governments to do: it could allow them to entirely block sites like Wikileaks.org that post government documents and exposes the truth (like leaked documents), and we would have no power to stop it.
This power could come from clause 8 in the bill that would allow certain government officials 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” Governments could easily claim that the posted material infringes on copyright and block the content, and that is a serious problem that not only challenges free speech but also challenges democracy at its core.
Regardless, citizens have a right to know about what happens in their government, and this bill seems like it is being imposed on the people to keep them in the dark, just as the bill itself has been passed without much deliberation.
Needless to say, this isn’t good at all.
[via TorrentFreak]
