Part of Business of the House – in the House of Commons at 10:30 pm on 7 April 2010.
Stephen Timms
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) (Digital Britain) (also HM Treasury), Financial Secretary (HM Treasury) (also in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills)
10:30,
7 April 2010
My hon. Friend could introduce a password so that somebody driving up outside his house would not be able to use his access. The letters that are sent out will have to give such advice and explain what people can do.
There are a number of things that libraries and others can do to prevent infringers from using their connection. For example, they can apply controls so that particular file-sharing sites with unlawful content are blocked at the subscriber level, which would be more difficult for an ISP to do more generally. Alternatively, they can block particular protocols or limit the bandwidth available so that file sharing on such connections is unrealistic. Such measures would allow libraries to prevent widespread infringement, but would still permit people to enjoy good online access.
I hope that I have provided some reassurance to hon. Members and that the amendments will not be pressed to a Division.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
Annotations
Alex Butcher
Posted on 8 Apr 2010 3:01 pm (Report this annotation)
Many Wireless Access Points are supplied unsecured, or inadequately secured by vendors and ISPs. Many users will not have the technical knowledge to secure their WAPs unassisted. There are too many models on the market for ISPs to include precise details for securing every model in the letters they send.
Furthermore, some Wireless authentication protocols (e.g. WEP) are not as secure as others (e.g. WPA2). Many WAPs do not implement the most secure authentication protocols. WEP can be almost trivially 'cracked' with contemporary (2010) computers without prior knowledge of the password.
Finally, many WAPs have security problems that vendors and ISPs refuse to fix (e.g. http://www.jibble.org/o2-broadband-fail/ ). Furthermore, all devices are eventually 'End-of-Lifed' (EOLed) by their vendors, at which point no further updates are released. Users, however, often continue to use devices as long as they are physically functioning.
Regarding public access, controls can only be enforced on unencrypted connections. As a result of legal challenges like this Bill, we can expect unauthorised transmission of copyright material to increasingly be via encrypted connections (e.g. https). Such encrypted connections also have entirely legitimate applications (e.g. online banking, interacting with HMRC, paying council tax) such that they cannot be blocked wholesale.