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Shiny New Legislation

I was recently struck by just how new most of the legislation creating duties for operators of electronic communications network is. Compared to the Computer Misuse Act, which has only had one amendment since 1990, these laws seem to be changing a lot faster: Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 – with a significant update […]

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Website Blocking: Alive or Dead?

Last year’s Digital Economy Act 2010 created a power (s.17) for a court to order a service provider to prevent access to a “location on the Internet” if that location was being used, or likely to be used, to infringe copyright. That power has not been brought into force and last January Ofcom were asked […]

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Closed Consultations

Parliamentary Enquiry into the Protection of Intellectual Property On-line

Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is carrying out an enquiry into the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Online and, in particular, the effectiveness and proportionality of the Digital Economy Act 2010. Since the Act isn’t yet in operation – we are still awaiting the publication of the Implementation Code by Ofcom – it’s […]

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OFCOM to Review DEA Blocking Powers

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has today announced that Ofcom will be asked to review the practicality of the provisions in section 17 of the Digital Economy Act 2010 that might in future allow courts to order blocking of infringing sites. In our responses to previous consultations on the Act we have expressed […]

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Digital Economy Act – Signs of Life

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published the first draft Statutory Instrument (SI) required for the implementation of the Digital Economy Act’s copyright enforcement process. The Online Infringement of Copyright (Initial Obligations)(Sharing of Costs) Order is is the SI that covers sharing of costs betwen rightsholders and ISPs: as suggested in last summer’s […]

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Closed Consultations

DEA Code Consultation

I’ve just submitted our JANET response to the latest Ofcom consultation on the draft Code to implement the Digital Economy Act. The Code contains a lot of the detail that was missing from the original Act and has some significantly different proposals in areas that had been previously discussed in Parliament and elsewhere. In particular: […]

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Closed Consultations

OFCOM Code Consultation: Mixed News

Having now gone through Ofcom’s consultation paper on the draft Initial Obligations Code, there seems to be both good news and bad news. As with everything else around this Act, a lot of thought has gone into the implications for consumer broadband connections. The consultation document contains several significant improvements for those types of connections. […]

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Closed Consultations

DEA Costs Consultation Response

I’ve just sent off JANET(UK)’s response to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills consultation on how the costs incurred in implementing the first stage of the Digital Economy Act 2010 will be shared between rightsholders and ISPs. The consultation covers three sets of costs: Costs incurred by ISPs in implementing systems to receive and […]

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Comparing DEA Requirements to JANET AUP

I’ve been having a look at what the first stage of the Digital Economy Act 2010 will require of qualifying ISPs and comparing it with what JANET already requires of the universities and colleges that connect to the network. And I can’t see that the Act would add anything to our existing measures against copyright […]

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DEA – Those Definitions

Ofcom have invited me to a meeting to discuss the definitions in section 16 of the Digital Economy Act 2010, so I’ve been staring at what the Act says and trying to make sense of how it applies to universities or colleges with JANET connections. Since a wide variety of answers to this question have […]