The EU are currently voting on whether to sign-up to the ACTA treaty being proposed globally and pushed by the US. The treaty has been negotiated in secret and aims to give even more power to “intellectual property” holders. From patented seeds and medicines, to internet connections policed by your ISP, ACTA is a major threat to developing countries and freedom of expression on-line.
For more information about ACTA, and what you can do to oppose it, see this page.
Anyone interested in the current dire state of the UK’s economy, exactly how it came about and some interesting observations on our government’s mishandling and our media’s misreporting of it will find the following 3-page article very interesting indeed. I would definitely recommend it to those who are not economists.
http://www.webtvhub.com/bankrupt-britain/
“Jimmy Doherty’s GM Food Fight” was shown on BBC 2 at 9pm on 25th November, 2008. It motivated (annoyed) me in to writing this post.
I found the programme to be quite biased. In many ways and on many levels… read more
Virgin Media…
…appear to be tampering with network packets if they detect you are using a router on your network.
…are monitoring and policing the data you send through your internet connection and have begin sending threatening letters to it’s customers on behalf of the record industry; entirely of their own volition.
…believe that net neutrality is, “a load of bollocks“.
…are participating in Phorm (see here for info about Phorm).
We should boycott them. Sadly, it’s our only option as consumers. Fortunately, it’s also the language shoddy, money-grabbing companies like Virgin Media understand.
Update: The ASA have upheld complaints that advertised claims about Virgin Media’s broadband speeds are misleading.
Update: Since BT are now also on the bandwagon, my advice to anyone looking for an internet connection would be to get a BT phone line but go with 3rd party broadband. I’m currently with Be and I can definitely recommend them.
