Conservatives And The Surveillance State

Dominic Grieve the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, has outlined plans to reduce the role of surveillance by the state. This is just what I want to be hearing from opposition parties, given we've had 10 years of silly laws that have no regard to fairness, legality, common-sense or that little thing called privacy.

Some of the Tories policies are perfectly credible and I would imagine easy to implement. The problem with these proposals is what it's always been, they want us to trust that they will not be temped by the power the surveillance state presents. When those buzz words "terrorism" and "public interest" are like a trump cards for anything and databases are a quick fix for everything, they the Tories unlike Labour won't be temped.

They include the proposal for a British Bill of Rights they've previously mentioned, which will protect personal privacy, it's effectiveness of course will be determined by how it's implemented. Oddly for something so monumental though, information is sadly lacking. I hope it won't end up like Jack Straw's Bill of Conditional Rights and Many Responsibilities.

Yet regardless of the Tories policy, I can't help but feel uneasy, this is an easy stick to beat New Labour with, as perfectly illustrated by the documentation released along side this speech, it's like shooting ducks in a barrow. Will they really do it? I'm not so sure, yet the balance needs to be readdressed. Which is something that does work in the Tories favour, we know New Labour won't do it.

Mandelson's UK File Sharing Policy

Mandelson has personally intervened in the Digital Britain report saying that previous plans would take too long to implement. Under his proposal, "internet service providers would be obliged to block access to download sites, throttle broadband connections or even temporarily cut off access for repeat offenders."

So while Lord Long Pretentious title sits back slipping a Whiskey, listening to his wireless and happy with his days work. Just a little point, how on earth is this policy going to work? And why is there no mention of prosecution before cutting peoples phone line?

Torrent sites allow you to download legal files as well as pirated copies so how will they know without looking? People share connections, you can hide your IP address, encrypt and if you base the disconnection on the bases of how much you download, won't people that legally buy or stream films and music be effected?

The internet is incredibly adaptable, the only thing the government could do to stop file sharing is pull the plug. This proposal is unrealistic to say the least. The best thing the music and film industry could do, rather than just trying to sue everyone, would be to work with the digital download industry, as they can not continue to be elitist in an internet age.

Piracy aye! Shiver Me Timbers

Sweden's court has found guilty for breaking copyright law the founders of Pirate Bay, the high-profile file sharing website. We can all rest easy now knowing we won't be seeing any starving and homeless film stars and pop singers.

Never mind that they're still not addressing the reason why people turn to internet piracy. If they charged a fair and reasonable price to begin with, people would buy. It's unrealistic to rip customers off and expect them to embrace it. Their time would be better spent not just suing everyone, but working with the digital download industry, as they can not continue to be elitist in an internet age.

Disclaimer - the views expressed in this post do not mean I endorse or participate in file sharing. That would be like stealing a car or shoplifting, and I wouldn't do that.