DEB - "A Bad Bill"

Not my words, but those of Lord Whitty on the conclusion of the Lords debate on the Digital Economy Bill. It appears that the 3rd reading debate last night made no significant changes. In particular the amendment on site blocking by ISPs that was passed last week has not been altered, despite the harm it is likely to do to both free speech and safety on line. The Bill now moves to the Commons, where the closeness of the Budget and General Election seems likely to limit the possibilities for debate.

Although we haven’t managed to improve the text of the copyright-infringement parts of the Bill we do at least have a public acknowledgement from the Government that the application of the Bill to universities and colleges is not simple, and that inappropriate application could seriously damage our existing work to reduce copyright infringement on JANET. I hope that will be enough to persuade Ofcom to fit us into the Bill’s definitions and Code in a way that does not do too much harm either to rights holders’ interests or ours.