Digital Britain

Britain has traditionally been influential in European policy for telecoms and online content. It is not as loud as France, but in a quieter way, lets its views be known. British policy was the point from which the EU has taken its lead, notably in trying to establish a competitive telecoms market, where the British influence on telecoms policy has been markedly evident. Britain's competitive telecoms policy was established in the 1980s and 1990s, and has subsequently been implemented by successive governments. Britain now arguably has the most competitive telecoms market globally. It risks losing this influence if we leave the EU.

The current Conservative government has set a policy goal for universal broadband access. However, the structures that govern the industry are problemative for achieving this goal. This makes for some interesting policy analysis.

The government also supports a policy of content filtering, which is problematic. Content filtering is contradictory to the government's aim of leading the world in digital and creating a new industrial strategy.

This section primarily discusses a previous policy attempt to amend telecoms law for copyright enforcement in Britain. This was the Digital Economy Act which was forced through in the dying hours of the last Parliament in May 2010. These measures involved the use of network technology against the users, with implications for the neutrality of the network, and the neutral ‘mere conduit’ status of the network provider. In 2016, this law has not been implemented, and from what can be ascertained it is deemed to be unworkable.

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’

UK telecoms review – is Openreach too hot to touch?

Monica Horten

Published on 23 February 2016

What should be done with Openreach, the mechanism for competition in UK broadband? The regulator's announcement was a cautious 'leave it as it is'. Here we consider the other options. Divest Openreach from BT? Would public ownership be in the national interest?

Today the UK regulator Ofcom has unveiled its conclusions in a 10 year review of the UK telecommunications industry. At the centre of it all is Openreach, the British Telecom division that controls competitive access to broadband customers around the country. The burning issue is whether Openreach should remain part of British Telecom, or whether Ofcom should force them to separate. It would seem that the regulator will stay more or less, with the status quo. It's also being reported that BT is dangling a £1billion carrot in front of the regulator.

However, the policy question is about the national interest in an internationally competitive broadband infrastructure. The government's policy

UK ISPs & music industry broker 4-strikes copyright anti-piracy deal

Monica Horten

Published on 09 May 2014

***Breaking news *** 4 strikes deal *** Digital Economy Act without the backing of the law***

A so-called ‘voluntary’ deal is close to being agreed in the UK between the Internet Service providers (ISPs) and the music and film industries for a system of notices to be sent to Internet users who are alleged to have downloaded copyright-protected material from non-licenced sources or ‘pirate- sites. This is the deal that Minister Ed Vaizey previewed in Parliament earlier this year, which he called VCAP –Voluntary Copyright Alert Proposals.

Little is known yet about the deal, which was revealed on (leaked to?) a BBC Radio news programme. The BBC is currently the sole source - I cannot find any other information and the companies concerned have not put press releases online – however, it looks like they’ve tried to broker the Digital Economy Act without the backing of the law and without the involvement of Ofcom and scrapping the independent appeals body. Here’s what is known about it.

Should copyright enforcement be in the IP Bill?

Monica Horten

Published on 28 January 2014

Blink and you’d miss it, but there is a tiny little Bill on Intellectual Property being discussed in the UK Parliament this week. The Bill has nothing to do with copyright or the enforcement of it (only patents and design rights) but guess what? There are calls for Internet copyright enforcement to be included in it. Could they, and should they, slip in measures like criminal penalties and increased intermediary liability, into the IP Bill mid-process, without having done the relevant consultations and contrary to EU policy?

***Updated Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th January. See below.***