Richard's Kingdom

Content-industry lobbyists know that language is important. That’s why they use words like ‘theft’ and ‘piracy’ to refer to copyright infringement. Despite the current trendiness of the P-word, lamented recently by one industry insider, conflating these terms with illicit downloading has allowed organisations like the BPI and the Federation Against Software Theft (which abbreviates to [...]

Dear Harriet Harman
I am writing to you in your capacity as Leader of the House of Commons. My MP Richard Caborn may have made representations to you already on my behalf however I wanted to emphasise how important this matter is to me.
Please ensure the Digital Economy Bill benefits from the full scrutiny of all [...]

The Open Rights Group calls attention to a proposed Digital Economy Bill amendment that, if accepted, would allow the Government to censor the web in the name of enforcing copyright law.
I have put fingers to keyboard once again, therefore, resulting in the following missive to the noble Lords who came up with the idea.

Dear Lord [...]

I’ve been following debate on the Digital Economy Bill quite closely since it was announced and have written about it here a couple of times. One issue with this legislation is that it may have the effect of killing public wifi.
My Mum is a librarian. In conversation with her earlier today it occurred to me [...]

Dear Lords and Ladies of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
I’m writing to ask you to represent the voice of UK citizens during the passage through the House of Lords of the Government’s Digital Economy Bill.
I am deeply concerned by the measures this Bill would introduce, and given that my MP seems unwilling [...]