

Government drops website blocking (UK) - xd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14372698#

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nextparadigms
_""The review pointed out that if you have a situation where 90% of your
population is doing something, then it's not really a very good law," said
Simon Levine, head of the intellectual property and technology group at DLA
Piper."_

No sh!t. So decriminalize "piracy" too then.

Overall, I like what they're doing, and I'm glad they are deferring these
cases to the Court and having them go through due process, rather than trying
to pass a law so they can automatically take down these sites, which is the
direction USA has been taking lately.

They are not there yet, but they are definitely moving in the right direction,
like allowing more freedom to remix other people's works, which is what the
human kind has _always_ done anyway, regardless of it being legal or not. The
illegality of it came only with the lobbying of the copyright industry to turn
copyright into "property" that only they and they alone can have so they can
squeeze _directly_ as much money as possible (disregarding the fact that
creating an external culture outside, but around, your works might make your
works even more popular).

As for CD's and DVD's - it's the perfect example of why the Government is so
slow to react to new technology. CD's and DVD's are already becoming obsolete
and people are starting to use only the Internet, and they are passing this
law _now_? They should've done it at least 5 years ago. Unfortunately, this
only means it will take another 5-10 years to reconsider some of other things
that they now think it's "piracy", and "illegal".

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ZoFreX
I'm not anti-piracy but I object that that is a legitimate argument. A huge
percentage of people (in the UK at least) commit crimes on a regular basis
such as littering, parking illegally, shooting red lights, speeding... should
we remove these laws because everyone is breaking them? Absolutely not.

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pointyhat
Shooting red lights! With what?

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epochwolf
He probably means running red lights. Maybe they call it "shooting the light"
in the UK?

~~~
xd
nope, we call it running red lights.

~~~
xd
however, saying that, there are so many different regional sayings that I'm
sure somewhere in the UK it's called shooting red lights.

~~~
pointyhat
Only "oop north" probably...

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madaxe
This isn't good news. Yes, they're dropping the bill, but only because the
newzbin2 case has made it clear that they don't need legislation to dick all
over people, and in the absence of a legislative framework, they can make it
up as they go along, rather than being constrained by what would have turned
out to be a relatively conservative bill.

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pointyhat
Positive news finally. I'm not for or against piracy but that covers obvious
legitimate use, although I think my Windows Media Centre/Sony TV setup is
going to break the law still...

