I shouldn't listen to radio 4 first thing in the morning. John Humphrys often puts me in a bad mood before I even get out of bed - although I suppose I only dislike his questioning when he's giving someone I support a bad time :o) Anyway...yesterday was no exception. He was doing his usual aggressive questioning, not allowing the responder to get a word in on the subject of the judgement that may force ISPs to block Pirate Bay. This time it was a person representing the ISPs who was arguing that it is not their remit to police what people do on the internet. A perfectly reasonable and correct standpoint. Humphrys however, was having none of it - he thought that they were 'assisting' people in downloading illegal material and pornography by providing a service. That's like saying the Highways agency are complicit in bank robberies by providing decent roads for the robbers to escape on. Ridiculous. What came out of the interview from Humphrys (and a Conservative MP, also interviewed), is that they simply don't understand how file sharing works, or how the internet works. This article fron the Guardian sets out the resons why a block won't work.This is simply another skirmish in the battle for the control of the internet - Big Business wants to turn it into a one-way vehicle for pushing content at people, government and bureaurocrats want to crush the ability to organise and protest - doing so in the name of 'combating terrorism'. It's a battle that must be fought and won by anyone who values freedom of expression and the right of dissenting voices to be heard
