Government’s Online Tools Used Against Digital Act

Open standards organisation the Free Software Foundation has called on citizens to oppose the Digital Economy Act… using the “Your Freedom” site newly created by the government.

In a statement this week, the FSF called on UK citizens to use the government’s newly created “Your Freedom” site to call for the repeal of the Digital act. The “Your Freedom” site was created by the coalition government as a forum for citizens to nominate laws and regulation which should be scrapped.

Repeal The Act

“The new UK Government has launched a website called “Your Freedom“, that they are billing as a, ‘chance to tell us which laws and regulations you think we should get rid of’,” the FSF stated. “Please us the website to rate the ‘Repeal the Digital Economy Act’, 5 stars out of 5, and add a comment supporting repeal of this unjust law.”

The page created on Your Freedom for the Digital Economy Act has received a hundred-plus comments – mainly expressing dissatisfaction with the law. The page created to discuss the law describes the law as being “pushed” through parliament. “It was a bill that was lobbied for extensively, by money-concerned corporations, with little to none of the ISPs having to enforce the Act being consulted. It should be repealed unconditionally.”

The FSF is only the latest organisation to take a stand against the Digital Economy Act. Last week internet service providers BT and TalkTalk called for a judicial review of the legislation which they claim would impose unfair costs on their businesses and impair consumer freedom.

The Digital Economy Act was passed into law in April after it received Royal Assent from the Queen. The Act includes provisions allowing the internet connection of users to be suspended if they are found to be persistently downloading copyrighted content. But a last minute amendment to the Act requires additional legislation to be passed before terminations can be carried out.

Our Programme For Government

In May regulator Ofcom has published a draft code of practice for tackling copyright infringement over the Internet – based on the Digital Economy Act – including a ‘three strikes’ rule, which could see persistent infringers being taken to court for illegal file-sharing. Ofcom said the code should come into force in early 2011.

The Your Freedom site is part of a wider scheme known as “Our Programme For Government” which the coalition states is about delivering “radical, reforming government, a stronger society, a smaller state and power and responsibility in the hands of every citizen”.

An overarching feedback site was created for the programme but has now been closed for comment. The coalition is planning to post a video responding to the comments on the site by the end of July.

In October last year, Tom Steinberg, director and co-founder of mySociety, an organisation that has campaigned for smarter use of the Internet and open source software as a way to increase visibility in government, agreed to help advise the Tory party on its web strategy.