Daily Pulse

UK Gov. May
Ditch Digital Sanctions

There’s a growing number of stories indicating that the UK government is about to ditch the website-blocking provisions of the Digital Economy Act, leaving doubts over whether it ever served as a deterrent against copyright theft.

The stories seem to have started with a piece in ComputerWorld, which interviewed Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and gleaned that the UK’s Conservative-Liberal coalition government is about to repeal the relevant section of the DEA.

Huppert’s been critical of the DEA in the past but recently appears to have become even more focused on it since a group of his own constituents said he hasn’t been sufficiently critical of the government’s plans to increase mass monitoring of email, and social media messaging under the Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP).

 
The CCDP, described by its opponents as “a snoopers’ charter,” isn’t popular on the Liberal side of the coalition.
It’s hard to say how much Huppert’s news will appease his voters in the university city as the relevant sections of the DEA only duplicated powers that were already available to the government through Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA).
 
Apart from that, the site-blocking powers of the DEA are in fact dormant until enacted, which would require a new vote of both Houses of Parliament, something the present government has already said that it isn’t planning to do.
 
Huppert doesn’t agree that repealing that part of the DEA is irrelevant and says it not only puts the Internet-blocking measures beyond the reach of the current government, but also beyond the reach of future governments unless they wanted to turn to primary legislation – or another full Parliamentary Bill – in order to re-introduce them.
 
He also pointed out that provisions in Section 97A of the CDPA, while “not perfect” were “far less Draconian” than those contained in the DEA.
 
Where the news will have most effect will likely be at the British Phonographic Industry, which is already on the government’s back for dragging its feet on implementing the DEA.
 
ComputerWorld did concede that repealing the DEA, whether it’s dormant or not, is still a “a step in the right direction.” 
 
The magazine’s logic appears to be based on the fact the DEA does not merely duplicate powers in the CDPA, but actually enhances them.
 
So, just because the legislation was dormant, it doesn’t mean it’s meaningless to repeal it.
 
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