You are fired from the internet!

Mandelson proposes that anyone downloading music illegally will be banned from using the internet. This may take the form of their internet connections being cut off (Evening Standard 25.8.09).

Now, I am not saying that internet piracy is a good thing, I for one always pay for music (if possible purchasing the CD at a gig) because I want to support the artists that I like, but surely such a 'ban' is not only extremely difficult to enforce, but also draconian in it's thinking.

Take for example, someone downloads music from the wifi within a cafe, library or the ENTIRETY of Brighton Beach. Does the Cafe get the ban? Will the Thought-Police have to hunt down the IP address of each computer and ban them individually? Will all this paperwork have to go through the 'Elders of the Internet'?

It looks extremely suspicious that Lord Mandelson came up with this ideal shortly after meeting with the Media Mogul David Geffen.

I await to see if a petition emerges on the Number 10 Petitions website. If you haven't visited the site, please do. After all it was one of these petitions that got the Prime Minister to apologise for the treatment of Alan Turing during the 1930s. They do work, if aimed in the right directions.

Mmmm, democracy :)