Where was Fair Use in the Digital Economy Bill ?

It is a  gloriously sunny day outside. The sky is blue, the air is warm and a breeze softly hushes through the garden. It is the sort of day that would have my Father telling me to “get out there and enjoy it”. After the actions of my Government  in the last few days I might just do that, Since they have started what could be the first in many steps to return the Internet to the days of AOL.

They insist this bill is to protect content creators and yet it has no clarification as to how  individual content creators can be expected to track and locate their content or successfully apply to an Internet Service Provider or Hosting company for the correct information. The bill does not protect them it is a farce and a lie to believe otherwise.

You cannot protect content creators by prosecuting the audience, but you can build and encourage content creators by creating confidence in their consumers.

In  no way does the Bill demonstrate a clear example of how I will be protected by the following events:

  • Music or Films or Games that utilise Digital Rights Management by way of ‘checking in’ with an external service which no longer work due to the Rights management company withdrawing the service or disappearing or possibly being blocked by a ISP. I may have spent hundreds of pounds on a large library that in seconds becomes useless.
  • Films purchased through Sky+ which fail to play correctly resulting in the lack of ability to recover the money and price of the Movie for another time.
  • A scratch on my CD which means 1 track in my Album will not play
  • A popular TV show which is playing in America but wont be shown in the UK for another 12 months.
  • A Software installation on my computer which requires installation disks that were never shipped with the computer.
  • The replacement of a book collection lost to Flood or Fire damage or simple age and Again it is no longer stocked by the publisher.

If we had seen a bill that addresses these issues then I believe we would have seen a bill that would never have been allowed to pass.

Thanks for reading

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