autopope gets two Hugo nominations *and* most of a page in Hans

[major_clanger]

House of Commons Hansard, Volume 508, Part 67, Column 869

From the speech of Austin Mitchell MP (Lab, Great Grimsby) during the abbreviated Second Reading of the Digital Economy Bill, 6 April 2010

I can best voice the concerns that have been put to me by quoting from an e-mail from a woman, who cites the words of Charles Stross. The e-mail states:

"This seems to be a draconian and heavy handed bill aimed at appeasing big business and I do not believe its being granted royal assent is in the best interests of British citizens."

Why is that? Well, Mr. Stross has said:

"I'm a self-employed media professional working in the entertainment industry, who earns his living by creating intellectual property and licensing it to publishers. You might think I'd be one of the beneficiaries of this proposed law: but you'd be dead wrong. This is going to cripple the long tail of the creative sector-it plays entirely to the interests of large corporate media organizations and"-

messes-

"on the plate of us ordinary working artists."

I was selectively quoting there. Mr. Stross continues:

"Want to write a casual game for the iPhone and sell it for 99 pence? Good luck with that-first you'll have to cough up £50,000 to get it certified as child-friendly...Want to publish a piece of shareware over BitTorrent? You're"-

up against it there, mate-

"all it takes is a malicious accusation and your ISP (who are required to snitch on p2p users on pain of heavy fines) will be ordered to cut off the internet connection to you and everyone else in your household. (A really draconian punishment in an age where it's increasingly normal to conduct business correspondence via email and to manage bank accounts and gas or electricity bills or tax returns via the web.) Oh, you don't get the right to confront your accuser in court, either".

Nobody can be happy with legislation passed on that basis.

Comments

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

What's this about the child-friendly certification?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Clause 41 of the Bill; see also the relevant explanatory notes.

I'm not sure where the £50k figure comes from but I believe it's an estimate of the likely total cost of the certification process, based on comparable existing procedures. (I'd be interested in seeing sources and refernces for this though.)

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

Oh, is that an extension of BBFC mandatory certification to "video games"? I wonder how that's going to apply to Flash games etc..

[addict-yin.livejournal.com]

Oooh, very nice. Where's the original text that Charlie wrote? Or is that most of it already?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/11/imbeciles.html

You will see why Austin Mitchell slightly bowdlerised it :-)

[addict-yin.livejournal.com]

Ah wow, that was a while ago. No longer I didn't find it in a quick perusal of the blog!

[addict-yin.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm curious: is the use of euphemism something that Hansard applies, or the Member?

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

Well in the case of "messes" that was Austin Mitchell toning it down for the delicate ears of his fellow MPs. I remember hearing that and thinking "I'm sure that wasn't the word Charlie used".

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Turns out this is not the case -- the actual fees will be much lower and only apply to stuff packaged for retail sale. (No word about forcing an extension to online sales.)

Trouble is, folks are quoting a six month old article.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Usually the Member, because otherwise they get into trouble with the Speaker for using "unparliamentary language". If someone does slip up (or decides they just don't care), Hansard will usually report it accurately, along with any reprimand from the Speaker. If the Speaker interrupts quickly enough, they will sometimes pretend that the microphone didn't pick up the offending word.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

"messes-"

*snigger*

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

So we are lucky that Jeremy Paxman isn't an MP :-)