Digital Economy Bill (2nd reading) (UK)

[Peter Presland]

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.

And that's not the half of it either.

Consider the case of Craig Murray's attempts to include documents he obtained under the UK FOIA in his book 'Murder in Samarkand'. He was threatened with legal action which his own solicitor advised could cost £1 million to defend, for - wait for it - BREACH OF CROWN COPYRIGHT.

Got that? You can obtain documents under FOI but you can't publish them without permission of the copyright holder. You couldn't make this up could you? but that was (is) the precise position of HMG in this case.

Attached is a jpg of one of the threatening letters from one Gareth Butrill of HM Treasury Solicitors (strapline 'Law at the Heart of Government'). It is NOt a wind up or forgery or satire. It is the real deal. This actually happened.

You can read an extended commentary as events unfolded here
And on Murray's own blog here

It doesn't take much imagination to project how such reasoning will be used under this new Bill does it? and the average ISP is certainly not going to go out on a limb in face of claims of Crown Copyright from a Government Law Officer either.

The stealth war against dissent continues with its velvet gloved deceptions. I wonder how long before the gloves come off?