Richard's Kingdom

Despite massive public opposition the Digital Economy Bill was voted into law last night. Here’s how Sheffield MPs behaved: Constituency MP Party At 2nd reading? At 3rd reading? How they voted Attercliffe Clive Betts Labour No No FOR the Bill Brightside David Blunkett Labour No No ABSENT Central Richard Caborn Labour No No FOR the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]