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Economy

Government delays Digital Economy Act

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

March 21, 2011 | 2 min read

A planned overhaul of Britain’s internet piracy laws has been delayed until 2012 at the earliest whilst the government goes through the necessary appeals surrounding EU approval is required to implement a cost sharing arrangement between ISPs and copyright holders.

This would have entailed a 75/25 per cent split to cover the cost of collecting data on downloader’s, issuing warning letters to those deemed to be infringing copyright.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has also asked Ofcom to investigate those provisions of the Act which grant the government powers to block internet access to to copyright infringers over doubts that this would work in practice.

In a separate action BT and TalkTalk are already bringing a judicial review of the plans on Wednesday, part of an ongoing effort to stymie the measure, arguing that the Act runs counter to the EU’s privacy and commercial directives.

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