The Digital Economy Bill

In the Digital Britain White Paper published in June 2009, the Government outlined its intention to legislate to tackle illegal P2P file-sharing. The Digital Economy Bill is currently being drafted to take forward the proposals from Digital Britain that require primary legislation.

The White Paper set out the Government’s support for the principle that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be obliged to take a role in tackling illegal file-sharing on their networks. It stated that a statutory obligation would be placed on ISPs requiring them to send letters of notification to illegal file-sharers, and keep a record of those customers engaged in online piracy. After a period of 12 months, there would be an additional requirement placed on ISPs by the regulator Ofcom to introduce a series of ‘technical measures’ which would reduce the performance and site access of repeat infringers’ internet connections. 

Since the publication of Digital Britain, the Government’s support for tackling illegal file-sharing has developed, and the Government is now proposing these additional elements:

• an abandonment of the ‘baseline and trigger’ approach and changes to timescales;
• giving the Secretary of State the authority to introduce technical measures through Ofcom;
• an extension of the technical measures proposed to include the possibility as a last resort, of temporarily suspending the internet connections of egregious repeat infringers;
• an expectation of rights holders and ISPs to meet jointly the costs of notification sending.

The consultation closes on 29 September 2009 ahead of the Bill being introduced in to Parliament.

Links to relevant documents

• Digital Britain website
• Initial consultation on P2P filesharing - 16 June 2009 (PDF)
• Government statement extending consultation - 25 August 2009 (PDF)