Government Determined to Pass Digital Economy Bill and Allocate Costs

The Government is pressing ahead with plans to pass the Digital Economy Bill into law before the general election on 6 May. The Bill would introduce plans to require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to send notifications to customers at the behest of rights holders, and would require ISPs to keep lists of alleged infringements (together known as the 'initial obligations'). More controversially, the draft legislation includes the grant of powers to the Secretary of State to draft secondary legislation to require ISPs to take 'technical measures' against Internet users accused of multiple infringements and to introduce a new regime requiring courts to order ISPs to block access to websites which may be associated with copyright infringement.

Meanwhile, the Government has recently opened a consultation on who should pay for the 'initial obligations' set out in the Digital Economy Bill, including costs incurred by Ofcom in overseeing the new regime. The consultation is likely to elicit strong responses as rights holders, ISPs, consumers and the Government take differing views on who should pay for the measures.

To view the article in full, please see below:

Full Article

The Government is pressing ahead with plans to pass the Digital Economy Bill into law before the general election on 6 May. The Bill would introduce plans to require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to send notifications to customers at the behest of rights holders, and would require ISPs to keep lists of alleged infringements (together known as the 'initial obligations'). More controversially, the draft legislation includes the grant of powers to the Secretary of State to draft secondary legislation to require ISPs to take 'technical measures' against Internet users accused of multiple infringements and to introduce a new regime requiring courts to order ISPs to block access to websites which may be associated with copyright infringement.

Meanwhile, the Government has recently opened a consultation on who should pay for the 'initial obligations' set out in the Digital Economy Bill, including costs incurred by Ofcom in overseeing the new regime. The consultation is likely to elicit strong responses as rights holders, ISPs, consumers and the Government take differing views on who should pay for the measures.

The Digital Economy Bill is designed to implement several disparate strands of Government policy arising from the 'Digital Britain' white paper published in June 2009. These include imposing new obligations upon Ofcom to report on the...