Lord Lang of Monkton

Digital Economy Bill

Lord Lang of Monkton has been written to by at least one member of the public - see text below. If you wish, email adopt@openrightsgroup.org

Correspondence

Dear Lord Lang of Monkton,

I would like to bring to your attention the matter of the Digital Economy Bill, and how it is a serious threat to my rights: both on the Internet, and in any citizen's daily life.

Do you believe in a fair and democratic judicial system? Do you believe in the basic right to free speech? I certainly do, and many citizens of this country do as well. The Digital Economy Bill, however, threatens these basic rights that our country thrives upon: the proposal in the bill is that the punishments will be carried out automatically, without any judicial system to decide on the severity or even on the guiltiness of the accused. Secondly, responsibility of traffic is measured through the IP address of the Internet connection, which would threaten an entire industry (the public wifi industry that are in charge of wifi access in restaurants, hotels, etc), as well as people who have had their Internet connection, network or computer hacked into.

I for example, am an Internet professional, and rely on the Internet for income. A confiscation of my connection would render me out of work and with no court to appeal to. This kind of confiscation of my tools of trader is actually outlawed by the Magna Carta.

I hope you will be able to take these views into consideration, and act on them or enable your peers to do so.

Yours sincerely,

John Hamelink, www.syntaxmonster.net