Watford Labour Candidate, Claire Ward’s Response – Disconnection and Web-blocking

Last but not least, New Labour’s Claire Ward‘s reply to my email regarding the Digital Economy Act (below). The letter feels sincere enough, but echoes the party line despite Claire not even bothering to turn up to vote on the Bill when it was presented to parliament.

I’m disappointed of course. Claire Wards main platform for re-election seems to be based solely on Watford General Hospital which is apparently under threat of cuts from the Tories – but there is a hint of FUD in this strategy I think. Regardless, thankyou both Claire and Richard for making my decision easier tomorrow. I will be voting for the party that seems to have a little more common sense and is slightly more resistant to lobbying – at this stage (whether that’s a market share issue time will tell).

Dear Mr Fitzpatrick

Thank you for contacting me about the Digital Economy Act.

I do support the general principles of the Act, together with the government’s wider Digital Britain programme. I also firmly believe that the internet must find ways of ensuring that artists are paid properly for their work. As such, the issue of online copy infringements needs to be tackled.

I do appreciate that the Act has attracted a good deal of controversy and I accept that it did make a swift passage through Parliament.  As such, I would not be averse to many of the issues being revisited in future debates.

However, it is also the case that there has been a good deal of misinformation spread about what the Act does and does not do.  Whilst it does require ISPs to write to their customers whose accounts have been identified by a rights holder as having been used for illegal downloading of their material, this is actually a greater protection than current law allows for. I have seen several constituents recently who have been threatened with legal action by a couple of German recording artists.  They have been threatened with a heavy fine and would actually be better protected by the new measures. Under the new measures, ISPs will not disclose account holder details at such an early stage.

In cases of the most serious infringers, if a rights holder obtains a court order, the ISP would have to provide information so that the rights holder can take targeted court action.

Only if this approach fails to secure the government’s target of a 70% reduction in illegal peer to peer file sharing will the Act allow for reserve powers that could possibly oblige an ISP to apply measures such as a band width restriction, a daily downloading limit or, as a very last resort, temporary account suspension. A proper independent appeal would be available against application of such measures. I feel this is a proportionate response to the situation. It will not be the case that someone suspected of illegal file sharing would be suddenly disconnected, as some have suggested.

With best wishes.

Claire Ward – Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Watford

Read Lib Dems Candidate Sal Brinton’s reply.
Read Conservatives Candidate Richard Harrington’s reply.