Mandelson’s War on Young Downloaders, Under Public Scrutiny
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary of the United kingdom seems to have trodden upon the spine of a badger by launching a crackdown on illegal downloaders of movie and music files over the internet. The fact that arouses distress in Mandelson’s mind is that the number of his targeted illegal downloaders equated with one in twelve of the total UK population. The business secretary’s plans to criminalise around 7 million ‘illicit downloaders’ of the country have already been criticised by a large part of the digital and political segments.
A Former Labour Minister Leads the Anti-legislation Campaign
It is interesting to watch a former Labour minister leading the campaign against the allegedly criminalising legislation. Tom Watson, a former minister for digital engagement, in an article published in the Sunday’s Independent has called for a change where the illegal uploaders would be targeted instead of the downloaders. The new legislation expected to be announced in a fresh Digital Britain bill that would be published in September is also believed to inadvertently target scores of naïve parents that are uninformed of their children’s online whereabouts.
Watson also stated in his article that the sanctions not only posed the risk of criminalising a great proportion of the citizens of the UK, but also attached a regulatory burden that was unbearable, on an emerging technology, which had the potential to transform the society. He added that the sanctions also did not guarrantee that the artists and the culture of the country would get any richer, because of them.
According to Watson, the ministry should have been aiming at mapping a path ahead for businesses to gain financial advantage of the vast digital market, considering the positive fact that most people did not prefer to break the rule, even though they liked downloading music content from the internet.
The David Geffen Affair
The time chosen by Lord Mandelson to push forth the regulations too helped raise a few eye brows, as the British media almost unanimously reported the rendezvous between Mandelson and the Hollywood mogul David Geffen on the Greek island of Corfu. According to the reports, Mandelson who was holidaying in Greece had dined with the American tycoon at the Rothschild family villa on the island of Corfu.Geffen is the founder of the Asylum record label, which signed up the Eagles and Bob Dylan. The 66 year old is one of the most prominent figures in the US music and film industry. He had teamed with Steven Spielberg in 1994 to set up Dreamworks that produced popular flicks such as Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan and Shrek.
The Tory and the Pirate Party UK Stances
The stance of the Tories reflected in the expressed views of David Davies that the meeting of the business secretary of the UK with the Hollywood music and film giant did seem a coincidance that was remarkable. Davies said that Peter Mandelson should be made to disclose the details of his meetings with affluent friends on holiday as well as in the name of transparency, reveal precisely what they discussed.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Pirate Party UK, Andrew Robinson who will stand against Michael Foster, the Worcester Labour MP, opined that the proposed legislation represented an invasion into the civil liberties.
Lord Mandelson Responds
Lord Mandelson responded to the scathing attacks made by the detractors of the newly proposed anti-piracy legeslation, through a spokesman who revealed that file sharing was one thing that was not discussed at the dinner with Geffen. He avered that discussions had been going on over those issues for a matter of weeks and Mandelson was the last man to believe that Digital Britain was on the radar of David Geffen.
