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Lord Lucas Says Record Companies "Blackmail" Users

Posted by timothy on from the lord-timothy-yields-his-time dept.

Kijori writes "Lord Lucas, a member of the UK House of Lords, has accused record companies of blackmailing internet users by accusing people of copyright infringement who have no way to defend themselves. 'You can get away with asking for £500 or £1,000 and be paid on most occasions without any effort having to be made to really establish guilt. It is straightforward legal blackmail.' The issue is that there is no way for people to prove their innocence, since the record company's data is held to be conclusive proof, and home networking equipment does not log who is downloading what. Hopefully, at the very least, the fact that parliament has realised this fact will mean that copyright laws will get a little more sane."

8 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Finally, someone gets it. by mykos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the best thing I've read all week. If I went to someone and said "You have wronged me so pay me money or I'll report you to the cops", I could be reported and sent to jail. Maybe if I had a lawyer write my threat up, my demand would magically be non-extortionate.

    1. Re:Finally, someone gets it. by VJ42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well that's a matter for the courts to decide and unfortunatly for you they have decided.

      Yes, in UK law they decided that information wasn't property and thus couldn't be stolen. See the case ofOxford v Moss for more detail.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    2. Re:Finally, someone gets it. by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's quite good that the Nobles finally stand for their nation and condone globalisation.

      I would have expected it to come from a civil entity as it should be expected from a democracy.

      Most of the hereditary lords lost their seats years ago when Labour first came to power. So they're not the nobles they once were.

      However - and this is the important bit - they are not elected by the voting public. Seats are (generally speaking) for life.

      This is completely counter-intuitive and flies in the face of democracy. I guarantee there will be at least one person who will reply saying "What a ridiculous system" or words to that effect. But the thing is, it works quite well. IIRC the Lords can't introduce legislation themselves but they can discuss and block legislation that's coming through - and because their seat is for life, they don't need to worry too much about pandering to either a panicked electorate or to commercial interests who are going to be funding their next election campaign.

      In fact, it works rather too well in some cases. Our Glorious Former Leader, Blair, very nearly discovered this to his cost with a few of his anti-terror bills. They only got through because of the use of "emergency" legislation which essentially allowed him to bypass the House of Lords.

    3. Re:Finally, someone gets it. by jabuzz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The problem with the House of Lords is that the vast majority of people have no idea as to the real work that they do. The amount of poor drafting of legislation that they correct is truly staggering. The amount of just nasty ideas that get blocked is also quite staggering. However because the chamber is unelected (which has traditionally made them very hard to bribe) people see it as undemocratic, and we get the fiddling that Blair did which just served to make them prone to bribery.

  2. To which Lord Vader of the RIAA replied, by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Funny

    I find your lack of faith disturbing.

    --
    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
    1. Re:To which Lord Vader of the RIAA replied, by Soldats · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh good so I'm not the only one who thought George Lucas when I read that headline.
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      right?
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      guys?

  3. Read up a bit more on the system by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lords like Lucas are very difficult to pressure or to get them to shut up. As a whole, the lords are a bit of a nuisance because they tend to get in everybodies way. If you are on the left, they go against a ban on fox hunting and if you are on the right they keep insisting on this bloody liberty thing. That is where they get this bad rep from, because politicians don't like to be questioned. As citizens, we shouldn't take politicians word for it that the lords are all bad.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  4. Re:Mandelson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing makes up for Mandelson.