Digital Economy Bill: Proposed By The Unelected, Debated By The Ignorant, Voted On By The Absent

from the buffoonery-in-action dept

With the UK’s Digital Economy Bill rushed through with little real debate, it’s worth looking at the ignorance behind those who supported and pushed through the bill. The more you look, the more you realize they didn’t even understand the very basics of what they were talking about. As some have noted it was “a bill proposed by the unelected, debated by the ignorant and voted on by the absent.”

And yes, it was proposed by the unelected Lord Mandelson, who has had to resign from the Government twice before due to accusations of corruption or influence peddling. And, of course, as many have noted, he only became interested in the whole Digital Economy Bill thing after vacationing with David Geffen, the former recording industry and movie industry mogul. After that, he suddenly pushed through the bill which went directly against the recommendations of the Gov’t’s own Digital Britain committee.

Then we get to the ignorant. Perhaps the most stunning is that, via Kevin Marks, we now learn that Digital Britain Minister Stephen Timms, who was in charge of pushing the bill through, didn’t even understand what an “IP address” means. In a letter to an MP, he explained “IP” as an “Intellectual Property Address.”

Now, yes, IP is used for both Intellectual Property and Internet Protocol, but if you actually know what you’re talking about, you don’t mix up the two. And Carlo points us to a message from Will Tovey noting that the Digital Economy Bill originally called an IP address an “Internet Portal” address. These are the people you want deciding the basic internet setup in your country?

And the folks involved in the debate don’t seem to be too keen on understanding details either. During the debate, one MP, Michael Connarty had a bizarre take on the situation:

“People are not talking about co-operating and sharing their own thoughts and content, but are stealing someone else’s content and sharing that. There is an Armageddon, which has partially arrived in Sweden, where the Pirate Party, whose leader is in jail, won seats in the European Parliament on the basis that everybody’s work–including MP4’s–should be free.”

Can you count the number of mistakes there? Of course, the big one is the idea that the leader of the Pirate Party in Sweden is in jail. He’s not. My guess is that Connarty thinks The Pirate Bay and The Pirate Party are the same (they’re not even connected) and that the jail sentences handed down to some of the folks who worked on The Pirate Bay applied to The Pirate Party’s head and that someone was actually in jail (they’re not). But, you know, who needs details when you’re just setting the framework for all internet connectivity and rights across your country?

And, finally, there are the absent. During the little time put forth for debate — where many were vehemently opposed to the bill, notice that the House of Commons was basically empty:

But when it came time to vote? Suddenly over 200 MPs showed up. It makes you wonder why they’re allowed to vote if they haven’t even heard the debate. Especially when the guy in charge of convincing them to vote on this bill doesn’t seem to even understand what’s in it or what it will do.

Filed Under: digital economy bill, stephen timms, united kingdom