MP tables Early Day Motion on three strikes

Tom Watson MP is fast becoming one of the heroes of social media circles. He has a blog, has a Twitter account, and is generally considered “one of us”, he clearly gets the online environment, and most importantly, I think that it shows that he is genuine, as opposed to the many politicians whose forays into the Web 2.0 landscape seem phony. He spoke at the COMMUNIA workshop in London earlier this year, and I found him to be well-informed and willing to listen to the net roots.

Now Tom Watson has tabled and Early Day Motion at Parliament calling into question the much maligned three strikes policy. The text bears reproduction in its entirety:

“That this House notes with concern the Government’s proposals on file sharing which would allow rights holders to request internet service providers to disconnect for a period of time, or throttle, the internet connection of people who may be accused of copyright infringement via peer to peer networks; believes that disconnecting alleged offenders will be futile given that it is relatively easy for determined file-sharers to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection; acknowledges that illicit file-sharing only costs rights-holders money when people download infringing content in preference to buying it; further notes that identifying offenders using the Internet Protocol address of a specific machine may punish those who share a web connection; and calls on the Government to ensure that any citizen accused of illicit file-sharing is given the right to legal redress in a court of law before sanctions are imposed.”

Well done and keep up the good work.