Green Party condemns government plans to attack Internet users
The Green Party today called for the government to drop plans that attack internet users in the name of supporting the creative industries.
Under plans announced midway through the Digital Britain consultation, if your internet connection has been used to repeatedly download illegal content, you will be cut off.
Caroline Lucas, Green Party Leader, said: "Mandelson might be persuaded by industry moguls on holiday in Corfu, but we know this measure won't work. It risks cutting citizens off from important online services and will do little to stop the determined commercial pirates. The government should be helping the creative industries to adapt to the new digital age, promoting creative opportunities for all citizens not punishing consumers."
"This is a hugely disproportionate response. It wouldn't matter who had done the sharing. It wouldn't matter if it was someone else in the building. It wouldn't matter if your machine had been assaulted by malware and used without your knowledge."
Lucas concluded by saying that: "Big business tried to push this through in France, but the courts threw it out as unconstitutional. If the Labour government debated this in Parliament, and took the measure to the doorsteps of British citizens, it wouldn't get past the first hurdle."
"Bypassing the Digital Britain consultation - after meetings with media moguls - just raises suspicions that policy is being decided in their interests, not ours."
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