Scottish Roundup

The latest Scottish Roundup is up here: Blogging births, deaths and marriages.

Devolve drink-drive limit to Scotland?

An MSP wants the alcohol limit for drink driving to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so it can be lowered:

UK ministers have come under fresh pressure to allow a lower drink-driving alcohol limit in Scotland.

Highlands and Islands MSP David Thompson wants the limit cut from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg. The SNP backbencher says the UK Government is dragging its feet by not giving Holyrood the power to act. Giving MSPs the ability to alter the limit was recommended in the Calman report on devolution, which Labour ministers are considering.

This is not something I favour, though I would favour if most of transport policy because a devolved matter. The vast majority of road journeys in Scotland start in Scotland, end in Scotland, and never leave Scotland throught their itinery. Therefore they are Scottish matters and it would be more natural to deal with them at the Scottish level than the UK level.

Currently all transport policy is reserved for Westminster. The Calman commission recommended that the drink-driving limit be devolved, which is a very minor change. The vast majority of road transport policy should be a devolved matter.

Overall Calman has been very timid and unambitious in recommending more powers be devolved. If Scotland is going to re-visit the devolution settlement, and devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament,  then it must be realised that changing the ettlement isn’t something that happens often, so each time Scotland seeks to change the settlement, it might as well have a big shopping list of new powers, rather than just a few. Just as if going to the supermarket was a long journey, you wouldn’t just buy one item.

For example the Calman Report says policy on airguns be devolved, when it would make more sense if all firearms policy became a devolved matter.

Another matter that could be usefully devolved is internet policy. At the moment, the internet is a reserved matter, but if Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill looks likely to become law, it would make sense for Scotland to devolve this power, so it wouldn’t have to implement such a damaging law.

Mandelson’s blueprint for Internet 2.0

In a daring raid, Peter Mandelson’s blueprint for what will replace the internet has been stolen from the Prince of Darkness’s secret hideaway on his friend David Geffen’s luxury yacht. Here it is — click on the image to expand it:

(via Twitter)

I won’t vote for any MP who supports Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill

I’ve just started a new facebook group: I won’t vote for any MP who supports Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill.

The Digital Economy Bill plans to disconnect people from the internet if they’ve merely been accused of filesharing, or if anyone sharing their connection has been so accused. This is a breach of our human rights, and must be opposed.

No-one should be disconnected from the internet or otherwise punished for illegal filesharing unless they’ve been found guilty in a criminal court. Nor should anyone be punished merely for sharing a connection with an illegal filesharer; collective punishment is an infringement of human rights, and a war crime.

The group’s name is pretty much self-explanatory. While Lord Mandelson wasn’t elected, all 646 MPs in the House of Commons were, and most of them would like to keep on being MPs.

Normally, politicians care more about vested corporate interests than they do about mere citizens, but we’re lucky in the timing of this, because there has to be a general election within the next 8 months. There are roughly 7 million filesharers in the UK; if we all make our voice heard, they have to care what we think, at least until the election is over.

If you want to fight this unjust law, join the group, invite all your friends to join, and publicise it on your blog or website.

Andrew Robinson interview on Simply Syndicated

Pirate leader Andrew Robinson has been interviewed on Simply Syndicated, where he discusses Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill.

Say No to the Digital Economy Bill

Charlotte Gore understands the consequences of Lord Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill:

Mandelson wants to be able to ban individuals from [the internet] as punishment for copyright infringement. [...] Here’s the key question: do we want to live in a society where people can be cut off from the internet without a trial, without a jury and without proving they committed any offence at all?

How to answer that depends on how you view the internet. Is it like a hi-fi that the council can confiscate if you disturb your neighbours, or is it more like being banished from the town you live in?

I vote banished. I know enough people who don’t have friends in the real world, who socialise exclusively online. I know people who depend on access to the internet for their careers and livelihoods. It’s become such a huge part of our lives, of the way we live and interact with each other that cutting people off from it is a clear and severe restriction of their liberty.

The Digital Economy Bill is a declaration of war against Britain’s digital natives, because it treats the internet as a souped-up interactive TV, not as a fundamental part of our daily lives.

It’s a declaration of war against our civil liberties, as it imposes punishment without trial.

It’s a war crime against the British people as it imposes collective punishment, which contravenes section 33 or the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

Together we can fight this unjust law! Join the Pirate Party today.

EU chooses Van Rompuy as president

By a process that makes Afghan, Iranian, and Zimbabwean elections look democratic, yesterday the EU chose Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy to be its president.

Baroness Catherine Ashton, who is currently Commissioner for Trade, got the foreign affairs post.

According to the BBC:

Both are seen as consensual politicians with limited foreign policy experience. Both had unanimous backing from the 27 EU leaders at the summit in Brussels, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Earlier, the UK government had said it was no longer pushing for former PM Tony Blair to get the presidency post. Mr Van Rompuy, 62, had crucial French and German support. He has a reputation as a coalition builder, having taken charge of the linguistically divided Belgian government and steered it out of a crisis.

If we’re going to have a president of the EU, shouldn’t he be democratically elected by the people, and not selected in a shady backstairs deal by politicians?

Mandelson wants to impose law by decree on filesharing

Not satisfied with the powers he’ll get against filesharers in the new Digital Economy Bill — a £50,000 fine and banning from the internet — Lord Mandelson has decided that to stop illegal copying, he needs the power to make new laws by decree (i.e. statutory instrument):

Lord Mandelson is seeking to amend the laws on copyright to give the government sweeping new powers against people accused of illegal downloading.

In a letter to Harriet Harman, the leader of the house and head of the committee responsible for determining changes to such legislation, Mandelson says he is “writing to seek your urgent agreement” to changes to the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act “for the purposes of facilitating prevention or reduction of online copyright infringement”.

By writing to Harman, the business secretary is seeking to get the change made through a “statutory instrument” – in effect, an update to the existing bill that the government can push through using its parliamentary majority.

That can be done with the minimum of parliamentary time, which is already at a premium.

The letter, which is circulating inside the government, comes as ministers prepare to publish the digital economy bill at 7.30am tomorrow. That is expected to set out a “three strikes” policy under which people who are found to be illicitly downloading copyrighted material have their internet connections withdrawn after three warnings.

Lord Mandelson therefore wants to impose more impositions, over and above the already very draconian powers given to him in the Digital Economy Bill. What particular powers does he want? Cory Doctorow explains:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a “three-strikes” plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to “confer rights” for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to “impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement” (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright “militias” can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)

Mandelson is also gunning for sites like YouSendIt and other services that allow you to easily transfer large files back and forth privately (I use YouSendIt to send podcasts back and forth to my sound-editor during production).

Charlotte Gore is worried this will destroy progress on the internet in Britain:

It’s terrifying stuff that, if he’s successful, will cripple Britain’s technological progress. I use a programme called, “Drop Box” and it allows me to transfer files from my MacBook to my PC using the Internet. I don’t want such files to be publicly available because they’re my own personal private files. But Mandelson wants these services to disable privacy modes so that Movie Studios can check I’m not stealing from them.

It’s all in the name of Copyright theft – otherwise known as ‘Mandelson’s extremely rich friends’. It’s crony capitalism, favouritism and economic and social planning all rolled into one horrible, toxic bomb.

Whether or not Mandelson could actually succeed in wiping out Copyright theft on the internet is academic (he can’t, as it happens, no matter what he tries). What he can do is condemn Britain to a sort of internet dark age where technology is held back if it’s a threat to the vested interests Mandelson represents.

Pirate Party Leader Andrew Robinson suggests that:

If you want to protect your freedom of speech, your privacy, your right to be considered innocent until proved guilty, then now is the time to join the Pirate Party. We need your support to field candidates that will stand up against this insanity. We must show Labour at the ballot box that we will not accept this!

Labour MP Tom Watson is also against this illiberal and dangerous proposal.

So, what can you do against this? The simplest thing is to join the facebook group against this proposal.

While you’re at it:

• Join the Pirate Party’s facebook group
• TalkTalk’s Don’t Disconnect Us campaign has a facebook group and a petition you can sign
• Join the Pirate Party and the Open Rights Group

 

Press Complaints Commission wants to regulate blogs

Baroness Peta Buscombe, who recently became chair of the Press Complaints Commission, wants to regulate blogs:

Baroness Buscombe, the new chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, has ambitions for her organisation that go beyond the traditional newspaper companies.

She wants to examine the possibility that the PCC’s role should be extended to cover the blogosphere, which is becoming an increasing source of breaking news and boasts some of the media’s highest-profile commentators, such as the political bloggers Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes. Do readers of such sites, and people mentioned on them, deserve the same rights of redress that the PCC offers in respect of newspapers and their sites?

This is clearly nonsense and an unacceptable power-grab by the PCC and old media generally. Unity at Liberal Conspiracy has wirtten an article that bloggers can sign to assert that they disagree with these plans:

As you may have either seen on the Indy’s website, or picked up on from Mark’s commentary on her speech to the Society of Editors, Baroness Buscombe, the new Chair of the Press Complaints Commission, has been making noises about extending the PCC’s remit to cover blogs and blogging.

In the past, when this kind of thing has been mooted, the typical response has been one of  lots of blog-shouting of the ‘you’ll have to take my blog out of my cold dead hands’ variety. This time around I thought we might take a different approach and write directly to the PCC setting out one of the key practical reasons why PCC regulation would be a bad idea – which of, us, after all, wants to be seen to working to the ethical standards of the MSM when, with a few exceptions, these are so much lower than our own.

So, with that firmly in mind, I’ve drafted a collective response to the Baroness’s suggestion for you all to chew over, one that any active bloggers can sign-up to by leaving your name (real or online) and details of the your blog (title/link) in comments.

If you disagree with these plans, go down to Liberal Conspiracy and sign the article.

Britblog Roundup #247

Britblog Roundup #247 is up at Redemption Blues.