The Digital Economy Act 2010

The Digital Economy Act 2010
What is the Digital Economy Act?

The Digital Economy Act is a newly passed piece of British legislation that is meant to protect copyright online and increase regulation and control of the way people use the Internet.
How did it happen?

* The entertainment industry is refusing to adapt to new models, clinging to obsolete 20th Century thinking.
* The Bill was drafted by unelected officials after lobbying from the entertainment industry.
* It was passed in a hurry during the Parliamentary "wash up" process without full scrutiny.

Why should you be worried?

* Websites will be blocked for alleged copyright infringement.
* Families accused of sharing copyrighted files will be disconnected without trial. They will have to pay to appeal.
* Even if you don't live in the UK, it sets a worrying precedent for other countries to follow suit.

Disconnection or "technical measures" like bandwidth throttling will kick in if file sharing does not drop by an incredible 70%. There are no alternative punishments to disconnection, no matter what the damage it will cause, and there is no statutory limit on the length of these disconnections, called, in the weasel words of the Act, "temporary account suspension".

Despite thousands of letters of concern and a petition with over 35,000 signatures of protest, the Bill was rushed through in the final days of parliament during the "wash up process" - it was not given the full scrutiny that it deserved.

This is a piece of legislation that gives potentially unlimited power to unelected officials, and assumes guilt on the part of those accused of copyright infringement. We can expect the industry lobbies to be out in force to roll back our human right to freedom of expression in the name of copyright very, very soon.

What's happening now?

Now that the Bill has been passed and the election is underway, candidates from all the main parties are keen to distance themselves from it. They admit that there are serious concerns and that the Bill did not receive the scrutiny and debate it deserves.

Dan Bull / Songwriter

one who seeks knowledge

من غدا إلى المسجد لا يريد إلا أن يتعلم خيراً أو يعلمه كان له كأجر حاج تاماً حجته



The prophet sal alaah alayhe wa salaam said :' whoever travels back and forth from the masjed seaking only from this to learn and teach the book of allah and the sunnah ,then he will earn himself the reward or a perfect hajj'

Kathir ibn Qays said: I was sitting with Abu al-Darda' in the mosque of Damascus. A man came to him and said: AbudDarda, I have come to you from the town of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) for a tradition that I have heard you relate from the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). I have come for no other purpose.
He said: I heard the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) say: If anyone
: If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, Allah will cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one who seeks knowledge, the inhabitants of the heavens and the Earth and the fish in the deep waters will ask forgiveness for the learned man. The superiority of the learned man over the devout is like that of the moon
like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham, leaving only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion.