OK I said I'd stop but..
.. then OUT-Law asked me to comment on the implications of the Digital Economy Bill, especially for organisations and businesses that provide wi fi networks; and this made me think a bit more about how unworkable this whole scheme is.As I said to OUT-LAW, among the proposed new sections of the Bill is s 124A(1)(b) , which says that action can be taken not just against someone suspected of infringing copyright, but also against "a subscriber to an internet access service [who] has allowed another person to use the service, and that other person has infringed the owner’s copyright by means of the service

PS Digital Britain footnote
Time to leave this bone alone and do some proper work, but I can't resist noting the Digital Britain's team responses to criticisms, having been directed towards it by the Beeb. As it happens, despite the impression the BBC gives, these responses date from the summer so should hardly be regarded as the current BIS last word. But I can scarcely credit this:3. You’re criminalising a generation of people

Mandy and Me: some thoughts on the Digital Economy Bill
So, once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, where the breach is of copyright of course. First a brief summary of the terrain.Clauses 4-17 of the Digital Economy Bill introduce an “initial obligations” regime for ISPs, whereby subscribers accused of filesharing by rightsholders will be sent warnings of alleged copyright infringements, or “strikes”, by their ISPs; and a “technical measures” phase, to be green-lit only after evidence has been amassed that warnings do not work (but see below), which will allow sufficiently warned offenders who still seem not to have seen the error of their ways to be disconnected from the Internet. Traffic slowing and banning

Incredulity
.. is my new middle name.The Digital Economy Bill will be released at 7.30am tomorrow and will, it seems, include not only the anticipated disconnection provisions, but also a clause to allow the Secretary of State to basically change copyright law at will in order to stop filesharing, without primary legislation and without proper public debate and democratic oversight, in a move almost unprecedented in UK constitutional history.Why is this?It's reflecting the fact that technology is changing very fast," said Timms. "The existing [metho

here we go, here we go..
The Digital Economy Bill is nigh:"Digital economy bill Ensuring a world-class digital future following the Digital Britain White Paper , published on 16 June 2009, setting out the Government's ambition to secure the UK's position as one of the world's leading digital knowledge economies and take forward a new, more active industrial policy to maximise the benefits from the digital revolution by: delivering a universally avail