Brits being their usual technologically impaired selves

Inspired by the massive fiasco of the French Hadopi law, the Brits are planning a similar law to ban individuals from the Internet based on mere allegations of copyright infringement by the entertainment mafia, and without any court ruling. The people subjected to this ridiculous miscarriage of justice will still have access to a small selection of government websites though. Yes, it's just as insane as it sounds:

Enligt lagförslaget kommer besluten att stänga av illegala fildelare inte att tas av Ofcom utan direkt av regeringen, uppger The Guardian. Modellen motiveras, enligt regeringsdokument som The Guardian refererar till, med att åtgärder måste kunna vidtas snabbt i en tid när Storbritanniens kreativa industrier är hotade.

It other words, the British government is actually saying - straight out - that increasing the profit of the entertainment industry is more important than justice for their citizens. They're not even trying to wrap it in. I'm speechless. Absolutely speechless.

It should come as no surprise that a suggestion like this comes from a country where they have yet to discover the joy of a water tap that can serve them with a pleasing combination of hot and cold water. Technologically impaired bastards.

A joke, I presume?

"You've got to be kidding me". That was my first thought when reading Henrik Pontén's letter in today's Svenska Dagbladet. Assuming Mr. Pontén is in fact the athor (which I must admit I'm having problems believing) he seriously wants the public to believe that IPRED, IPRED2, FRA, Hadopi, Acta and Datalagringsdirektivet, to mention a few, are just products of our imagination, they're not real, they're not threatening the freedom of speech or personal integrity. And none of them are the result of lobbying efforts from the entertainment industry. Oh, and the industry paying off judges and policemen to win highly questionable lawsuits, that's just part of the whole conspiracy theory against these peaceful "friends of the Internet" (yes, he actually uses this term!).

What kind of drugs is Henrik Pontén on? Or perhaps he's just trying to be funny, or something?

Pontén ends his ridiculous rant with a call for The Pirate Party to explicitly denounce the threats made to him over the last couple of years. As if this political party has somehow been involved in these threats.

If anything Don Pontén and his little Camorra-army should apologize profoundly to all the people whose lives they have ruined or seriously damaged with outrageous threats, lawsuits and compensation claims. Innocent or not, it doesn't matter, pay up or face the consequences.

University of Uppsala adopts the Hadopi law

The University of Uppsala has adopted what may quite possibly be the single most ridiculous law ever to be passed by a senate, the Hadopi law, even though this law has yet to be implemented in Sweden. The university is acting as both judge and jury when it terminates the internet connection for its students based on allegations from the entertainment industry.

So much for the legal protection of the students...

I wonder what would happen if these "legal principles" were applied on other parts of the society:

"So, Mr. Svensson, your neighbour has reported that you've been writing her naughty letters, which she doesn't appreciate. Of course you know this means we will terminate your access to pen and paper for a year. No, we don't care that you need to sign your bills or do your tax return, and no, you can most certainly not get a fair trial in court. What do you think this is, a freakin' democracy or something?".

Congratulations, France!

I guess congratulations are in order, as the French prove that they've got by far the dumbest collection of politicians in the EU, quite possibly in the whole, wide world. Now that's quite an achievement considering all the stupidity out there.

The frogs have just managed to pass an Act so ridiculous, so bizarre, so outrageous that it is bound to go down in the history books. The "Hadopi-law" (yes, it's just as silly as the name implies) gives the government legal rights to terminate a users internet access based on mere allegations that his or her ip-address has been used to perform copyright infringements (yes, exactly, just copyright infringements, not acts of terrorism!). Why bother proving a copyright infringement has taken place? Why bother proving that the owner of the internet subscription was in fact the person performing this alleged infringement? Oh, and of course, why bother the court of law with all this when the government can take matters into its own hands, and terminate internet access on suspicion, taking the opportunity to terminate access for "unpleasant" people who don't share the government's views, and maybe even dare to blog about it ("nöt föör löööng, ju döön't!").

From an integrity, privacy, free speech and legal point of view this law is a complete disaster, of course. It promotes a massive surveillance and censorship, and it bypasses all judicial authority. To be quite honest, it sounds like president Nicolas Sarkozy is aiming for the big league now, with the likes of Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-il and the CPC, to mention a few.

The question now is: To what lengths will the French go in order to enforce this law? Will every French computer be fitted with a piece of spyware controlled by the government, in order to keep track of those who are banned from internet access, and make sure nothing illegal or government unfriendly is distributed in any way? If so, how do these dumb, French bastards intend to deal with Wi-Fi hotspots and internet cafés? Shut them all down, I presume? And if a friend provides a banned individual (or "non-person", as George Orwell calls them in his "1984" novel) with internet access through his own network, will he also be banned?