The Online Revolution

The internet is a relatively new conception, being invented in the mid-20th century, some of us remember before it was developed (and most of us remember it not being a part of our lives). Like most inventions, it has been used by both the ‘Establishment’ or ‘The Powers That Be’ and by ordinary people. The [...]

New fangled technologies and activism

Political activism has been in the news more in the last year than in all the years since the 2003 Iraq war. Revolutions in the Arab world, occupations in America and beyond, and student protests and social unrest in the UK have all been hailed as ‘social networking revolutions’. To understand the importance of information [...]

Facebook being shite #3874

Facebook can be a great place to get on your political soapbox. It gives you a chance to vent, you can share great articles and you can find yourself in a genuinely interesting discussion about certain issues.  As someone relatively new to socialism and who is still learning a lot about the issues surrounding it, [...]

Scientists say GM dialogue is a front for industry

Two scientists have now resigned from a group charged by the Food Standards Agency with having a “public dialogue” about genetically modified foods. Last week Dr Helen Wallace, who is part of the think tank Gene Watch UK, resigned from the steering group for the project, and Professor Brian Wynne, who was the group’s Vice [...]

Lib Dems sellout on the internet

Shock result (not): in another depressingly familiar sellout, the ConDem government is not going to repeal the Digital Economy Act. You might remember this epic law fail that was passed just before the election. It was New Labour’s dying gift to the corporate media/culture industry. It allows them to accuse people of infringing copyright, at [...]

Corporate culture industry exploits child abuse for political gain

Christian Engström, a Swedish MEP for the Pirate Party, reports how a Danish anti-piracy lawyer explained at an American Chambers of Commerce seminar in 2007 that the music and film industries were cynically exploiting the sexual abuse of children for political gain. “Child pornography is great,” said Johan Schlüter, a lawyer for the Danish Anti-Piracy [...]

Law Fail

Last week, the UK parliament showed its utter bankruptcy by passing the spectacularly bad Digital Economy Act into law with virtually no debate. The law as regards the internet in the UK is now a total shambles, a pigs ear which has been written by the corporate culture industry to safeguard their own profits. Noted [...]

Noteworthy Modern Occurences: The Digital Economy Bill

The Open Rights Group, which is campaigning against the draconian Digital Economy Bill, say: “On Thursday, our ‘Police’ visited the offices of the BPI, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties, and UK Music, and presented them with notice that the Digital Economy Bill is disconnected, from democracy, human rights, public opinion and sound business sense” [...]

Cracks starting to show on Digital Economy Bill

As Leftfield has already reported, Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems have been united on at least one thing in the run up to the election: their desire to allow the corporate culture industry write the law when it comes to filesharing on the internet. The epic law fail that is the Digital Economy Bill [...]

Shock as Titchmarch realises violence in videogames more entertaining than gardening.

The first game I ever played was Sonic The Hedgehog. I played it when I was around about 5 or 6, and thank god the unrelenting, brutal and sadistic violence in that game did not scar me for life. I did everything to that hedgehog you can imagine. I jumped him into lava, into spikes, [...]

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