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Britain

Digital Britain

Britain was traditionally  influential in European policy for telecoms policy. It was a  British Commissioner, Lord Cockfield,  who established the Single European Market.  Britain led the way in the establishment of a competitive European  telecoms market.  However, in leaving the EU, Britain has  lost the ability to influence  European policy in the future, and in 2022, Britain sadly finds itself no longer a major power, but instead has become an embarrassment for  British representatives in international fora.  The government is sunk deep in corruption,  it blatantly lies, its law-breaking has led to mistrust among former allies.  There are multiple posts, articles, and tweets to support this claim. 

It's in this context that the British government is preparing a law to address regulation of the Internet. It's a law that will have far-reaching implications  for the way the Internet will function in Britain, and will impact on web platforms overseas. I am referring of course, to the Online Safety Bill. As I write this, at the beginning of 2022, the Bill is only in draft form. How will it end up? Interestingly, in going through my old posts, I note that wrote in 2015 about a similarly -named Bill. It was the predecessor to this one. It never became law, but many of the provisions in it appear to have been taken forward into the 2022 version. 

A number of the articles in this section discuss a previous policy, called   the Digital Economy Act 2010.  This was a law that mandated broadband providers to work with the music and film industries, in order to enforce copyright on the Internet. It was forced through in the dying hours of the Parliament before the General Election of  May 2010.  The measures  involved the use of network technology to sanction  users, with  implications for the neutrality of the network, and the  ‘mere conduit’ status of the network provider. The law was deemed unworkable and never implemented. That is a lesson that needs to be taken on board by all policy-makers in this field.

If you like the articles in this section, you may like my book The Closing of the Net.

If you are interested in the Digital Economy Act and copyright enforcement policy, you may like my previous books A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms and The Copyright Enforcement Enigma - Internet Politics and the ‘Telecoms Package’

DE Act: should Parliament pass flawed ISP costs order?

Monica Horten
Published on 01 February 2011
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The European Commission questions whether  the DE Act cost-sharing is  allowable under EU law. And Ofcom suggests that ISPs could give credit vouchers to the rights-holders if they send fewer warning notices than  they forecast.

  The Westminster Parliament is being asked to pass a law which has been critiqued by the European Commission  and is potentially flawed.  The matter relates to a Statutory Instrument (SI)  setting out the sharing of costs between ISPs and rights-holders under the Digital Economy Ac copyright enforcement (graduated response) measures. It was laid before Parliament last week - as already reported on iptegrity.com.  It's full title is the "Online Infringement of Copyright (Initial Obligations) (Sharing of Costs) Order 2011".

 

The (SI) was notified to the European Commission  by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills  under the usual procedures. However, the Commission has come back with a number of questions for BIS, which ought to be addressed befor Parliament can pass an opinion on it.

 In a nutshell,

Read more: DE Act: should Parliament pass flawed ISP costs order?

DE Act: Will Parliament approve or reject copyright expenses?

Monica Horten
Published on 19 January 2011
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 Is the Online Infringement of Copyright (Initial Obligations) (Sharing of Costs) Order 2011 being rushed into Parliament just so that Ofcom can claim back expenses related to  the UK's  graduated response scheme?  

 

***Update 19 January. The draft SI on cost sharing and the "online infringement of copyright"  is due to be published by the UK Parliament today - I will update with a link when I have it ***

 

Today the UK Parliament took delivery of a  draft law - known as a Statutory Instrument - setting out the cost sharing arrangements for  the first stage of the  graduated response /3-strikes measures in the Digital Economy Act. 'Cost sharing' means how the costs will be split between ISPs and rights-holders, and the SI is highly controversial.

 

The Statutory Instrument - or SI for short -  has been  ‘laid before Parliament' which I have discovered means that it was deposited at the Secretary's office.  This means that it must now go through a process where

Read more: DE Act: Will Parliament approve or reject copyright expenses?

BPI (British IFPI) call to block the 'Net

Monica Horten
Published on 17 December 2010
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In the wake of yesterday's Wikileaks drama, a call by the  British  Phonographic Industry (BPI) for Internet blocking to support music copyright,  has gone almost unnoticed.  But  the BPI's call  is a siren warning that the freedom of the Internet is intensely under threat.

 

Yesterday, in interviews carried out alongside one of its standard press announcements about online piracy and digital music sales,   BPI head, Geoff  Taylor,  called for  Internet blocking to support music copyright. His demands were put in an interview broadcast on the BBC News 24  and in another interview given  to a reporter from the Daily Telegraph. (‘Blocking' is the word which he appears to have used.)  Mr Taylor wants

Read more: BPI (British IFPI) call to block the 'Net

More Articles...

  1. DE Act: Minister hosts industry talks on web blocking
  2. Google pressures UK into copyright review
  3. Rights-holder tactics exposed in ACS Law leak
  4. DE Act unjustified - Internet industry hits out at Ofcom
  5. DE Act: AT&T wants to wriggle out of copyright liability
  6. DE Act: users and ISPs hit by Ofcom Code
  7. DE Act: could the UK Parliament revisit it?
  8. UK ISPs demand judicial review of 3-strikes law
  9. DE Act: does the UK qualify for a 2-tier copyright regime?
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Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten. I’ve been analysing analysing digital policy since 2008. Way back then, I identified how issues around rights can influence Internet policy, and that has been a thread throughout all of my research. I hold a PhD in EU Communications Policy from the University of Westminster (2010), and a Post-graduate diploma in marketing.   I’ve served as an independent expert on the Council of Europe  Committee on Internet Freedoms, and was involved in a capacity building project in Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine. I am currently (from June 2022)  Policy Manager - Freedom of Expression, with the Open Rights Group. For more, see About Iptegrity

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Copyright Enforcement Enigma launch, March 2012

In 2012, I presented my PhD research in the European Parliament.

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