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UK Digital Economy Act Delayed Till 2014

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-little-breathing-room dept.

judgecorp writes "Although ISPs protests failed to stop Britain's Digital Economy Act — which applies measures against illegal file sharing — they have succeeded in delaying it till 2014. As a result of the appeal a new impact assessment has to be carried out secondary legislation needs to be approved."

13 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Dear Mandy by wanzeo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    obligatory

  2. Meh. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I doubt it'll do much, if anything, to deter pirates. They are an adaptive lot, and see any efforts to stop them as just a challenge to be overcome.

    1. Re:Meh. by Xest · · Score: 2

      Well that's what makes the whole thing really funny. The measures are aimed entirely at file sharing. Since the bill was passed file sharing has declined and become harder to trace, whilst file lockers and usenet have grown in popularity.

      So now this wont go live for another 2 years, I suspect the components of the bill will be so woefully irrelevant to the way piracy is working by this point that it will be meaningless anyway.

      This is the great thing about this sort of thing I suppose - UK politicians are such slow, lumbering wastes of space, that the chance of them putting law into place that has any hope of keeping pace with technology is pretty much negligible.

  3. Out of sight... out of mind. by gmanterry · · Score: 2

    They probably hope that everyone forgets about it before then. Then "bang" here it is!

    --
    Since when is "public safety" the root password to the Constitution?
  4. Hopefully the beginning of the end by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is how we kill legislation. Delay it endlessly until a different government is elected and drops it.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:Hopefully the beginning of the end by Captain+Hook · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is how we kill legislation. Delay it endlessly until a different government is elected and drops it.

      The trouble is, this is the different government.

      The DEA was voted in by the last Labour Government in out of hours voting which saw a grand total of 236 (189 for, 47 against) votes cast (out of 650ish MP who could have voted).

      The Conservatives didn't bother voting one way or the other for the most part giving Labour a free run at introducing a law the Conservative wanted but knew wouldn't be popular.

      --
      These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
    2. Re:Hopefully the beginning of the end by fremsley471 · · Score: 2

      It's not too cynical to think the whole bill was timed to proceed through this wash-up period. They knew an election was coming; proper oversight from committees and the Lords would've rightly killed it. The media are all wetting themselves over the forthcoming election and critical oversight is not working.

      This sort of poorly-though through stunt was also pulled by the Tories in 1997 when the railways were flogged off- that turned out well.

    3. Re:Hopefully the beginning of the end by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Rather than the votes cast, take a look at how many people turned up for the debates. I count 19 in that picture, but there are probably a few out of camera shot. The other two hundred just turned up for the vote. In the original Slashdot article about the act, there was copy of that picture but with the caption changed to 'Democracy FAIL'. Somehow, very appropriate.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    4. Re:Hopefully the beginning of the end by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      In wales, at least, Plaid has pretty sane policies towards IP. My Plaid MEP has spent much of her time campaigning for shorter copyright terms and against software patents.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  5. SOP by Kupfernigk · · Score: 2
    Have you noticed how whenever governments announce something popular but expensive it is always timed to happen after the next election? And stupid legislation tends to get progressively delayed?

    In this case (DEA) it looks as if an unholy combination of lobbying from "Lord" Mandelson's mates in the media, and the obsessive population-trackers in the Civil Service, was responsible. It was against the core Labour value that legislation should never enshrine privilege (i.e. private law), and it is equally against what used to be Liberal and Conservative support for laissez-faire.

    Personally, if Ed Miliband was to get up and say the DEA was wrong in principle and Labour should never have introduced it, I might consider taking the pins out of my wax dummy of Keir Hardie even the one labelled "Iraq" (though "Yo Blair" stays in)

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  6. It's incredibly easy to get around this by TAZ6416 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It only apples to ISP's with over 400000 customers of which there are 5 at the moment http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jul/08/bt-talktalk-challenge-digital-economy-act

    Just change to one of the many other ISP's out there http://www.ispreview.co.uk/list.shtml

    1. Re:It's incredibly easy to get around this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fortunately the UK has a clear written constitution and the first clause states "bad laws can't be made worse", so we're safe.

  7. Just in time! by monktus · · Score: 2

    There's a good chance that Scotland will vote to end the Union in 2014.

    --
    Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel."