Blocking Pirate Bay - The Continuing Assault on the Internet

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

The Real Motive Behind SOPA, PIPA and ACTA

Google and Facebook block content in India after court warns of crackdown | World news | The Guardian

There's a quote near the end of this article:  

But, like many other governments around the world, India has become increasingly nervous about the power of social media.

which indicates the real motives behind the recent attempts to introduce legislation on copyright and internet piracy. Ostensibly aimed at protecting the interests of copyright holders, their effect would be turn the internet into a delivery portal for content from media corporations, and  enable governments to crack down on what they would view as inflammatory material. Governments have seen the role that social media played in the 'Arab Spring' and, despite praising the liberating role the internet at the time, they can see the danger it presents to them and their ability to control information, and the people they supposedly serve.