The Government has proposed an amendment to the controversial web-blocking proposals recently added to the Digital Economy Bill. Instead of creating the blocking powers immediately, the amendment would give the Secretary of State the power to do so at some future date. This would be done by Statutory Instrument (SI) – a process that permits [...]
To complement my summary of the problems for universities and colleges with the Digital Economy Bill, Consumer Focus have published an analysis of the problems for consumers. They too note that even the revised Impact Assessment still ignores many groups who will be affected (including universities, colleges, libraries and all businesses providing wifi access), and [...]
The House of Lords has now published its report on the EC Communication on Protecting Europe Against Large Scale Cyber-Attacks. The conclusions seem broadly to agree with the evidence that Chris Gibson (FIRST) and I presented to them in November: that disruption to the Internet (whether deliberate, accidental or environmental) is something that needs to [...]
Not my words, but those of Lord Whitty on the conclusion of the Lords debate on the Digital Economy Bill. It appears that the 3rd reading debate last night made no significant changes. In particular the amendment on site blocking by ISPs that was passed last week has not been altered, despite the harm it [...]