Official Ares Free Download

Efforts by the Hollywood and Big Music to have their Three Strikes anti-P2P business plan forced into law in Britain before the next elections look doomed to failure, for the moment, at least.

Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt (right) says he doesn’t believe the Digital Economy Bill will get through Parliament before then, “even with Tory support,” according to Times Online, which goes on:

“The Conservatives back most of the proposals, which include disconnecting persistent internet pirates,” the so-called ‘graduated response’ developed by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, it says.

And it’s just been revealed that secretary of state Peter Mandelson, who’s representing the entertainment industry in Britain, is demanding changes to the bill.

They’d mean he, or his Tory successor, another unelected official, would be free to do anything they wanted without parliamentary oversight or debate or, as long as it was in the name of  ‘copyright protection’.

Or as the story puts it, “The Bill will also contain a controversial last-minute amendment that will give ministers the ability to change copyright law to combat file sharing. The clause will grant ministers the right to update the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 in response to new technlogies as they appear, which has led to accusations from online campaigners that it would give future governments too much ammunition against pirates.”

Stay tuned.

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