SuffolkOnline.net

The digital economy bill passed through parliament late last night. What does this mean for you?

Essentially this bill is to provide protection for some of the creative industries such as Music, Film & Games against copyright infringement.

This bill has the capacity to cut any user off from their broadband connection if there is sufficient evidence that copyright infringement has been made. The likelihood is that the user will first get a letter sent to them and then further action is taken after that.

One of the other points of the bill is that it has the capacity to block certain locations on the Internet if they feel it breaks copyright. This clause has been slightly ammended from the very wide ranging initial clause and now the government must go through the courts to get a website blocked.

The final major point on this bill is that the 50p phoneline tax that has been mentioned has also been scrapped due to the lack of time to debate this before the election. Quite how the government will pay for Next Generation Broadband we don't know!

Suffolk Online's advice as ever is to not break copyright by downloading illegal music, films or games so that you keep on the right side of the law. This has always been our view and this bill does not change it.

Click the links below for more info.

Bill passes through parliament

Phone tax scrapped

ISP perspective on Bill

Courtesy of Think Broadband