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10,000 UK citizens have written to MPs in les than three days to demand a debate on the Digital Economy Bill.

Meanwhile, corporate lobbyists are saying they are confident the Bill will pass as it stands. In other words, they are asking MPs to carry on and pass this Bill without scrutiny, despite the controversy it is causing.

It is outrageous for corporate lobbyists including the BPI, FAST and UK Music to demand that MPs curtail democracy and ram this Bill through Parliament without debate.

The British people did not elect UK Music and the BPI to write our laws.

How dare they push our MPs towards punishing innocent people by disconnecting them from the internet, without proper democratic scrutiny?

That is what is making our 10,000 supporters so angry – pushing this Bill through without debate is undemocratic and dangerous.

Please take action now.

Email your MP

Write to your paper

Come to the demos in London, Sheffield and Manchester

Join ORG

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A tidal wave of objections to disconnection being rushed through Parliament are reach MPs inboxes.

The numbers have exceeded even our expectations, but we are all clear that disconnection is wrong as a punishment.

It should be no surprise to corporate lobbyists like the BPI are busy trying to write our copyright law, and forcing attempts to curtail our human rights to favour their business interests.

But we expect better of our MPs. Many are decent folk; many won’t have through through the implications of this Bill. A debate is what allows the issues to be drawn out and understood – as well as fully publicly debated.

The internet has become a fundamental part of our lives. While not yet a formal right, it clearly is the prime means by which we exercise our rights to work, to receive an education and for freedom of speech.

This is what is drawing the reaction to this legislation. It has nothing to do with copyright infringement: we are appalled that the basic tool of our society – the internet – could be taken away from people because of trivial financial misdemeanours.

Please take action today:

Write to your MP

Write to your local paper

Come to our demo and gig

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Yesterday, I debated the Digital Economy Bill in front of law students and academics. The debate could not have been more different from last night’s Panorama.

Graham Smith of Bird & Bird outlined the legal situation. Then Richard Mollett of the BPI outlined his ‘top ten’ myths about the Digital Economy Bill, in a point by point attack on such well known radical critics as Liberty, Consumer Focus, JANET and the British Library. He did fail to mention that other group of political dissentors, MI5.

I then presented a series of points dealing with the extremity of disconnection as a punishment, and the stark contrast between this and how we treat gas, water and electricity. It is illegal to cut off water, companies go to extreme lengths not to disconnect any of these services, even offering reduced tariffs for the hard up.

The BPI is waging a war on every citizen in the country by demanding disconnection. Everyone’s rights are being curtailed in the name of their business interests. They are manipulating the political process and distorting the legislation that results.

They have gone so far as to suggest that politicians should evade democratic scrutiny of the Digital Economy Bill.

There are plenty of other corporate lobbyists that have manipulated politics before, of course. We might think of the oil industry, the motor lobby, tobacco giants, PFI lobbyists, Monsanto or pharmaceuticals.

What all these industry lobbies frequently share is a desire to act in their own interests against clear public interests. This is the path that the BPI and rights holders are choosing to take when they demand that citizen’s human rights are curtailed in order to better enforce their property rights, and appear to think that wider collatoral damage, such as backdoor censorship, chilling effects and the death of open wifi are acceptable.

This perspective was curiously underplayed in the Panorama broadcast yesterday. Instead, we mostly listened to a discussion between different musicians worrying about the future of their industry.

While that’s a concern – and the central concern of the BPI – our concern is our rights, democracy, and the future of our society, which is being built on the internet. We do not withdraw the basic tool of society without the most extreme reason. We certainly do not do such a thing without a massive public and democratic debate.

Please write to your MP – demand a debate – and tell everyone you know about this disgraceful Bill.

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Dan Bull's latest from Dontdisconnect.us - great video - tell your friends, and take action now!

Take action: tell your MP they must debate disconnection

Panorama will blow the debate open this evening – as Parliament shuts it down

This evening, Panorama is telling an unknowing public about disconnection. For many people, this is the first they will have heard about it – aside from reading the TV schedules today.

Then, when the Bill is first debated by MPs, they will shut democratic discussion down – after about two hours of debate.

So our elected MPs will have spent a whole two hours on this Bill – before they disappear back to Constituencies to ask for our vote.

Meanwhile, a ‘Rump Parliament’, made up of retiring MPs, and party whips, will pass disconnection measures – with no actual debate.

That’s what our right to freedom of speech, education and work means to our government, compared to copyright laws promoted by music industry bosses.

Please demand that these controversial measures are debated. Write to your MP – or better still phone them up, and ask why the Bill is not going to be debated.

Tell your friends. And email to let us know.

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The Digital Economy Bill’s disconnection and web censorship proposals suffered a massive blow today as Liberal Democrats voted unanimously to oppose these draconian measures.

Not a single speaker made any comment against the text – and Liberal Democrats reiterated their opposition to the closed ACTA negotiations. They emphasised the huge social, educational and economic value of the net today.

As several speakers noted - it was people like you writing to them that made them realise how important this issue is to voters in this election.

Liberal Democrats MPs now need to insist on Parliament’s duty to debate this Bill, and fully scrutinize it.

As the BPI said in their note leaked yesterday, the greatest chance this Bill’s dangerous measures have is if MPs fail to exercise their duty, and do not examine the myriad problems in it.

Without that debate, MPs could end up voting to damage the digital economy and society.

This Bill is now an election issue. As the Liberal Democrats have found out – this will change how people vote. We are talking about an essential service, vital to people’s lives, being withdrawn and lives and businesses damaged by very dangerous legislation.

Take action

Please write to your local paper, and your candidates. Ask your MP to make this controversial Bill is debated – and ask if your candidates oppose censorship and disconnection.

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A leaked memo from label lobbyists shows they expect Parliament to pass their plans for draconian disconnection punishments without debate.

The BPI, lobbyists who represent the four multinational music corporations in the UK, say that:

[MPs] will have minimum input … from this point on. … John Whittingdate MP [DCMS committee] … has said this week it [the Bill] could be lost if enough MPs protest at not having the opportunity to scrutinise it. Whist true in constitutional terms, the hard politics of the situation makes it seem unlikely … Come the week of 29^th March the main political focus is likely to be on the …  Budget”

This will allow all the decisions to be made in dirty last minute deals behind closed doors between the party whips in what they call “wash up”.

This way, disconnection penalties could be agreed with no democratic scrutiny whatsoever.

No debate.

The memo, published by Cory Doctorow, shows BPI lobbyist Richard Mollett, who hopes to become a Labour MP at the next election, telling music bosses that if MPs do their job and debate the Bill, the BPI's disconnection proposals may face defeat.

Mollett also claims that there is not the sense of a groundswell of opposition to the Bill. Well, we have seen nothing but a torrent of outrage at the Bill, and now Lib Dem candidates are saying that they are hearing the same thing. This week, many people threatened not to vote for the Lib Dems because of their stance in favour of web blocking and the likelihood of censorship. This Bill could cost MPs their seats: that's how controversial it is.

Do MPs really believe that they can pass disconnection without debate? Something so appalling as removing people’s basic tools to get on with their life, education, work and political expression, without actually needing to be guilty?

It is more or less impossible to disconnect someone’s water supply. It’s extremely difficult to disconnect someone's gas or electricity, even after non-payment. 

Yet the government plans would mean that disconnecting families from the net for alleged copyright infringement will be automatic and very difficult to contest. 

We need to show MPs that is not possible to agree to a measure like this on the nod. To refuse to exercise their democratic duty to debate legislation on a matter this important would be as corrupt as the Expenses scandal. We pay MPs wages. We expect them to do their job.

What to do

Write to your MP. Say that you are worried and appalled that something as serious as disconnection and interference with people’s freedom of speech, their right to work and education, could pass without debate. Point out that businesses, schools, universities are worried the Bill is unworkable. Ask them to ensure that time is given to such a controversial and ill-thought out Bill, especially clauses 11-18, about disconnection and web blocking. If you live in a marginal seat, let all your candidates know that supporting disconnection is something which would cost them your vote.

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