Digital Economy Bill (2nd reading) (UK)

[Jan Klimkowski]

Here's the thing - the bill gives a Govt minister the power to take whistleblowing sites to "court" and get them blocked on entirely spurious grounds, namely using copyrighted material.

Presumably the Pentagon snuff movie put online by wikileaks is "copyright" © The Pentagon.

Earlier the government removed its proposed clause 18, which could have given it sweeping powers to block sites, but replaced it with an amendment to clause 8 of the bill. The new clause allows the secretary of state for business to order the blocking of "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 Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming protested that this could mean the blocking of the whistleblower site Wikileaks, which carries only copyrighted work. Stephen Timms for the government said that it would not want to see the clause used to restrict freedom of speech – but gave no assurance that sites like Wikileaks would not be blocked.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/201...rd-reading