Campaign launched to kill Digital Economy Bill

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 18 Mar 2010 at 07:44

A campaign has been launched to stop the "draconian" Digital Economy Bill passing through the House of Commons.

The bill was passed by the House of Lords on Monday night, although huge question marks still hang over key parts of the legislation.

The controversial clause 17, which could see Government ministers given free rein to tamper with copyright law or ISPs forced to block access to sites illegally hosting copyrighted material, was set aside to be dealt with in the Commons.

However, with the General Election due on 6 May, the Digital Economy Bill could be whistled through the Commons in less than a day, raising fears that MPs are failing in their democratic duty to examine the legislation properly.

The Government is trying to rush it through quietly just before the election without proper debate – without a chance for us to voice our opposition

Now, digital campaigning site 38 Degrees is helping people write to their MP, asking them to halt the rapid progress of the bill.

"The draconian law is opposed by industry experts, internet service providers (like TalkTalk and BT), web giants including Google, Yahoo and eBay and even the British Library," the site claims.

"Despite all this opposition, the Government is trying to rush it through quietly just before the election without proper debate – without a chance for us to voice our opposition."

"The only way to get the bill through would be to rush it through without a real Parliamentary debate," the site adds. "Let’s stop that happening."

Visitors to the 38 Degrees protest site are asked to enter their postcode to identify their MP, and are then provided with a pre-written letter which they are free to edit before it is sent to the MP's email address.