The disconnection plans set out in the Digital Economy Bill will cost consumers £500 million, according to admissions by the ministers.
Proposals to suspend the internet connections of those who repeatedly share music and films online will leave consumers with a bill for £500 million, ministers have admitted.
The Digital Economy Bill would force internet service providers [...]
Levels of online music piracy have remained unchanged in spite of the rise of legal digital services and the threat of tougher sanctions against downloaders, a music industry survey has found, reports Tim Bradshaw.
Research by Harris Interactive for the BPI, which represents record labels in the UK, found that 23 per cent of consumers [...]
Last week, we told you about peer-to-peer and torrent file-sharing sites were being systematically shut down all over China. Not too long before that, we let you know about file-sharing being monitored by a major ISP in the UK.
Now, Israeli ISPs are throttling P2P network access, too, as confirmed in a report just released by [...]
Google, Facebook, Yahoo and eBay express “grave concerns” over the plans to give minister to power to change copyright law.
Leading internet companies including Google have written to business secretary Peter Mandelson urging him to change the new digital economy bill to throw out a controversial clause that could give future ministers sweeping powers to change [...]
Back in September, thousands of Internet users tapped their feet to the brilliant open letter on piracy, sent to Lily Allen by musician Dan Bull. As November draws to a close, Dan is back again, this time taking a swipe at everyone’s favorite twice-fired, unelected politician Lord Mandelson and his controversial Digital Economy Bill.
When Lily [...]
Britons’ love for filesharing is here to stay – and Peter Mandelson had better get used to it.
There’s a lot to hate about Peter Mandelson’s controversial Digital Economy Bill, but there’s one provision that perfectly captures the absolute, reality-denying absurdity of the whole enterprise. That titbit is the provision that holds the Bill’s most drastic [...]
The government’s pursuit of illegal filesharers has put it in conflict with ISPs and the creative industries.
“I think there’s a lot of lies being told, and this was just one of them.” That uncharitable assessment by a source who preferred to remain anonymous, of the claim by Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the Treasury [...]
The European Parliament has approved plans to disconnect illegal file-sharers, if proven guilty.
The European Parliament has approved the controversial Telecoms Package, which means that internet users can be disconnected for illegal file-sharing if their guilt can be proved.
The new laws were scheduled to be passed months ago but had been held up by attempts [...]
Lord Mandelson seems hellbent on stifling online creativity, writes Bill Thompson on Index on Censorship.
These days history repeats itself three times, first as tragedy, then as farce and finally as an ill-considered and illiberal proposal from Lord High Executioner Mandelson, the unelected Minister for Stuff in Gordon Brown’s government.
We saw it recently when he decided, against [...]
The Digital Economy Bill proposals receives a welcome from the music and film industries, but angers ISPs and privacy campaigners, writes The Guardian.
The government’s planned crackdown on unlawful online filesharing has been attacked by privacy campaigners and internet service providers but welcomed by executives and artists in the music business.
Earlier today, the government published the digital [...]
