Ada Lovelace Day: Women Against Disconnection

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. Find out more.

The UK Government is currently trying to push through legislation which threatens to disconnect people from the Internet for infringing copyright – that is, downloading music and films illegally – and the Open Rights Group have organised a protest against the Bill this evening near the Houses of Parliament in London.

Disconnection from the Internet is a seriously disproportionate punishment: if a person is caught fare-dodging on the buses, we don’t ban their entire family from using the bus for an unspecified length of time because they may need the bus – yet an Internet connection is seen as disposable. Perhaps it is to some people, but to others, it’s a necessity, required for school or university work, careers, jobhunting and staying in touch with far away friends and relatives.

It’s not just innocent families that will lose their connection either: libraries, educational institutions and other public wifi providers such as coffee shops and bars are likely to be hit – threatened with monetary fines in addition to disconnection, many of them will stop providing Internet access, and as a result, lose customers to larger chains who can afford the risk.

We realise that copyright infringement is a problem, and we’re not opposing the Digital Economy Bill because we’re freeloaders who want to protect our downloads: the Internet promotes freedom of expression and helps us to study, work and communicate, and losing it means losing some of our fundamental human rights.

So, for Ada Lovelace Day 2010, I want to celebrate all the women who will be joining me at that protest. Thankyou for helping us stand up for our rights.