Britain's new Internet Law: Death of the Startup in Britain?

Post by bumblebird » Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 12:08 AM UTC

russell wrote: post #6

Things are bad here with the DCMA, but things are really frightening in the UK which doesnt have the fundamental constitutional concepts of privacy, freedom of speech, and reasonable constraints on libel. Charlie Stross, a UK SF writer, has a blog today on this topic. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/11/imbecile... BTW: he's one of us.

Post by bumblebird » Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 12:10 AM UTC

dirkstoop wrote: post #15

cmelbye wrote: post #10

I honestly never thought I'd say this, but this bill makes our DMCA look awesome. Politics in Europe are so unproductive and ridiculous, I really hope that it doesn't spread to the United States and other countries that still have some personal freedoms.

Judging all of European politics by what's happening in the UK right now is like judging American cuisine by one meal served at McDonalds (which admittedly, a lot of Europeans tend to do). Nice counter-example: Finland just made broadband internet access into a legal right: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/finland.internet.righ...

Post by bumblebird » Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 12:12 AM UTC

iuygfhn wrote: post #22

bumblebird wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People working on startups are resourceful. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find free wifi/3g/get cable/adsl from another provider etc etc etc I agree the law is stupid and ill thought out and puts the whole idea of innocent until proven guilty out the window, but technology is hard for some people like unelected politicians to grasp. So they mess up, and make stupid laws. Meanwhile, people just sidestep and ma…

Suppose you called your site say "hacker news" and some local councilor decided that "hacker" was offensive - under this law they can simply delete your domain registration.

Post by foldr » Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 12:21 AM UTC

cmelbye wrote: post #10

I honestly never thought I'd say this, but this bill makes our DMCA look awesome. Politics in Europe are so unproductive and ridiculous, I really hope that it doesn't spread to the United States and other countries that still have some personal freedoms.

Post by foldr » Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 12:24 AM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #17

bumblebird wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least we can drink a pint of beer before we're 21. Keep your "freedom". We also have the freedom of health care for all. You know, we look after each other so people don't die so much.

sigh I'm happy for you that you have more freedom to drink beer. May I kindly suggest that, when exercising that freedom, you try and avoid nationalistic flame wars? This is Hacker News.