Digital Economy Bill presented, ISPs voice criticism

The Digital Economy Bill intends to reduce file-sharing of copyrighted works in the UK. In the Bill, Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms authority, is charged with supervising actions to curb piracy.

Contrary to previous speculation, the Bill does not include technical measures such as suspending Internet accounts of repeating file-sharers. However, technical measures are not excluded. If Ofcom does not manage to reduce piracy by 70% before a currently unspecified date, the Secretary of State may ask Parliament to approve technical measures such as bandwidth caps, data limits or even account termination may be introduced. 

As technical measures are not directly included in the Bill, it does not go as far as Lord Mandelsohn or the entertainment industries had hoped.

ISPs play a pivotal role in the Bill as they are tasked with forwarding warning letters to alleged file sharers on behalf of rights holders. They are not happy with all this attention. In this debate on how to best curb illegal downloading, ISPs have regularly voiced concerns about their position, stating consumer interest is poorly served by technical measures and that the costs of enforcement would be sizeable.

John Petter of BT said: "We believe abuse of copyright is wrong. However, we have real concerns about the government’s plans and the lack of legal protections for accused individuals. We believe that technical measures are not the way forward and that a system of court fines for repeat infringers is preferable.”