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 [...]

The Gagged Geeks protest against the Digital Economy Bill in Sheffield yesterday exceeded all my expectations. Around thirty protesters handed out 300 leaflets – our entire stock – in less than 20 minutes. We were joined by Paul Scriven, leader of Sheffield Council and Lib Dem PPC for Sheffield Central, who handed out leaflets and [...]

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 [...]

I’ve never even been to a protest before, let alone organised one, however given how wrong the Government’s proposals on the Internet are I’ve decided I can’t just sit back and let them happen.
There will be a flash mob protest outside Sheffield Train Station at 5:55pm on Wednesday 24 March. It’ll only take 20 minutes [...]

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 [...]