Sunday 7 March 2010

Copyright and the new laws

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/07/nsfw-hey-america-our-draconian-copyright-law-could-kick-your-draconian-copyright-laws-ass/

Ignore the title, its largely ironic, but the piece is a really interesting view on copyright laws in the UK and how they're set to change in the near to mid future. This is particularly interesting with the election coming up, (as the piece explains) and if enough people hear about this, and understand it, it really could change the way the UK population uses, or is allowed to use, the web.

I'm never thrilled at the idea of new regulation, the law is confusing enough that I literally have no idea if I'm breaking any at any specific time, but as a heavy Internet user, new regulation is bound to affect me, and you if you're reading this.

So yeah, copying stuff is hurting the country, and as manufacturing goes completely down the pan, maybe computer generated content -as a large part of our economy - should be protected?

Or should the Internet be left completely free for everyone to do whatever they want with, as originally envisaged in its early days?

This has been argued elsewhere, and everyone has a gut feeling to begin with on these things. But consider the long term effects of your actions and, importantly, realise that if you are doing something online, it is highly probable that thousands of others are doing the same thing. And cumulatively, its bound to have an effect on something eventually.

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