NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Digital Economy Bill fact sheets
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This is a useful link to the factsheets for the UK Digital Economy Bill. http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/digitalbritain/digital-economy-bill/factsheets/ The note on online infringement and copywright is worth a read as it puts the focus back on an industry agreed code which will be subject to industry and consumer group consultation, which the Digital Economy Bill will refer out to. It is good to see the Ammendment 138 in EU Telecom Act being referred too as it put some limits on those who might be wishing Henry VIII powers. This seems to take us back to where the discussion before the apparent change caused by Lord Mandelson alleged but denied holiday discussion in Corfu with David Geffin (Dreamworks). Watching snippets of the House of Lords (the UKs unelected Senate) debate the bill live, the clever bit was them teasing out a law pointing to an industry code which has yet to be agreed and would by its nature need many revisions. The obligation then will be to create a fix yourselves and to follow the code which must be agreed and will be subject to change! I will compile their comments from Hansard. Many of the withdrawn ammendments were withdrawn on the basis that the industry code will cover their concerns. No detail on the so called technical measures which is a bit odd. I had assumed the industry left to itself would mix the ISPs 'fair use policies' with the copywright code by making transparent existing practices of identifying the top 1-5% heavy users, defining their use as unfair and knobbling the offending bit streams to 5Kbps, quoting the catch all need to protect a network. The correlation with copywright and congestion will now need to be proven. Regards Mike |