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Lord Mandelson is rushing through plans which would give the UK government the power to cut off the Internet connection of anyone that has downloaded copyrighted content over the Internet.  Over 7 million Britons could be affected.

Industry experts warn these harsh new measures could easily lead to innocent web users being cut off by mistake. Only in June this year the government had ruled out draconian measures like this but now it appears Mandelson has caved in to the wishes of the music and film industry. His change of heart comes just days after a dinner with an industry lobbyist in Corfu.

You can find out more and sign the petition here: http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/mandelsonweb

I have no problem with protecting copyright but poorly drafted and rushed legislation could impact a whole range of people downloading information for legitimate research and business reasons. It’s the copying and distribution people they should be going after. But as always all Mandleson needs is a nice chat from a potential New Labour backer to change his mind.

Fact, when Neil Kinnock was Leader of the of the Labour Party you were unlikely to become a Peer if you had made a substantial donation to the Labour Party. Fact, Tony Blair was more likely to give you a Peerage if you had donated to New Labour. It’s all in the public records and in Robert Peston’s excellent new book – Who Runs Britain?

If this law is passed it will be a serious infringement of human rights and directly affect network marketers in Britain.

Testimonials – what good are they? Well put quite simply they are the basis of the last part of your approach to marketing on the social web. If you look at this Blog you will see I have created a Page called Testimonials. If you have no such page, then create one as soon as you have read this post.

Linkedin the Granddaddy of social networks enables contacts to given each other testimonials, as does ecademy. These are a crucial marketing tool and I see so many people who fail to use them. Someone has gone to the trouble of writing and saying you are a good person to work with, that is a very powerful referral, so use it.

Create a Page on your Blog as I have done and put, every testimonial you have online or offline and cut and paste them to this page. Every time you get a new one update the page. Ensure you include the full name of the person who gave you the testimonial, the testimonial in quotation marks and end with the date and source of the testimonial.

Testimonials are like social currency and should be treated like gold, not allowed to slumber on the network you were given them. They provide potential customers or joint venture partners real evidence that you can be trusted.

Make an offline Testimonial Folder and print out the testimonials so you can show them at meetings etc. Also you can get a very professional general brochure printed via the web in which you include the best testimonials. Again a very powerful thing to leave in say in public places where this is allowed.

So how good are your testimonials?

Fascinating video on how countries have really developed and how many people’s view of the world is based in what their teacher taught them not the data as it exists now.