Britain’s new Internet law — as bad as everyone’s been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.

“The British government has brought down its long-awaited
Digital Economy Bill, and it’s perfectly useless and terrible. It
consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that
upset the entertainment industry (including the “three-strikes”
rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if
anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright
infringement, without proof or evidence or trial), as well as a
plan to beat the hell out of the video-game industry with a new,
even dumber rating system (why is it acceptable for the government
to declare that some forms of artwork have to be mandatorily
labelled as to their suitability for kids? And why is it only some
media? Why not paintings? Why not novels? Why not modern dance or
ballet or opera?).

“So it’s bad. £50,000 fines if someone in your house is
accused of filesharing. A duty on ISPs to spy on all their
customers in case they find something that would help the record or
film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined
£250,000).

“But that’s just for starters. The real meat is in the story we
broke yesterday: Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary,
would have to power to make up as many new penalties and
enforcement systems as he likes.”

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