Comments on: Open Letter to Lib-Dem Lord Clement-Jones re: Web Blocking.

By: Adoption Curve » Blog Archive » Demand that the DEB gets scrutinised

Adoption Curve » Blog Archive » Demand that the DEB gets scrutinised — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:49:25 +0000

[...] written largely by lobbyists from entrenched corporate interests, and if passed will cause incalculable damage not just to the *real* digital economy but also to freedom of expression and [...]

By: Bridget Fox

Bridget Fox — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:37:11 +0000

25 Lib Dem PPCs sign letter asking Lib Dem Parliamentarians to think again on Digital Economy Bill http://ldv.org.uk/18185

By: Aden Davies

Aden Davies — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:26:39 +0000

Now I think Digital Inclusion is a very important topic and I would not want it hijacked…but…Digital Exclusion may just be more important.

http://net.digitalengagement.org/profiles/blogs/what-would-you-ask-nick-clegg

By: Mike Arthur

Mike Arthur — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:24:49 +0000

Thanks for all the lovely words people. Hopefully this gets sorted!

By: Dale Strickland-Clark

Dale Strickland-Clark — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:00:20 +0000

Brilliant. I wrote to Lord Clement-Jones but had neither the time nor the words to put it as well as you and Mike Arthur. Well done.

By: Mike Hillier

Mike Hillier — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:47:21 +0000

Brilliantly and succinctly put, with excellent additional evidence from Mike Arthur. I can’t see how the Digital Economy Bill is going to help build any economy at all. I can understand the need to protect copyright holders, but this bill fails to address that issue in any enforceable way.

By: Richard Gadsden

Richard Gadsden — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:21:16 +0000

You might want to go to http://act.libdems.org.uk/group/libdemsforsomedecentitpolicy where Lib Dems are trying to organise an internal opposition to this

By: Miles Dumble

Miles Dumble — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:19:42 +0000

Excellent comment.
Shame It passed
The Lib Dems have achieved what seemed impossible and made the Digital Economy Bill even worse…

By: Mike Arthur

Mike Arthur — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:31:14 +0000

My response:

Dear Lord Clement-Jones,

As a proud member of the Liberal Democrat party I was pretty appalled to see that you’ve lent your support to this web blocking amendment blocking sections of the web.

I’m a software engineer and have provided consultancy and training to various companies around Europe. This amendment is not only violates the principles of how the internet should work but is also not even slightly practical to enforce.

The internet, as a technology, detects any efforts to “block” a site as a failure and simply routes around it. It’s literally impossible, without removing the source, to ever prevent access to certain material. Through the use of anonymous relays, proxy servers, VPNs, SSH tunnels and a swathe of other techniques it’s trivial for any semi-technical individual to circumvent any blocks and also encrypt their data, meaning it’s impossible for anyone other than the source to detect that they have done so.

If there is illegal material on the internet then the ONLY way to deal with it is to shut it down at the source. If that source is beyond the UK’s legal jurisdiction then it simply cannot be blocked. It is not possible to do so, it has never been possible to do so and never will be. Any block or form of restriction on the internet needs only one person to be able to break through and then they can let anyone else access it.

Now that I’ve covered the technological reasons why this bill cannot be enforced I’d like to cover the sociological reasons.

This bill gives the government terrifying levels of ability to censor and block material they don’t like being present. It is already a crime to violate copyright law by unauthorised distribution, I have to ask why another law is needed to enforce this?

Thanks for your time, I hope I’ve convinced you to withdraw your support for this “blocking” measure.

Yours sincerely,
Mike Arthur

By: ponor

ponor — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:09:28 +0000

Thank you for writing this open letter. I hope it will be read and understood in the spirit of sharing and helping everyone to achieve their potential through creativity hard work and committment.