[SWLUG] Digeital economy bill passes

[Chris Jackson]

On 8 April 2010 12:21, Neil Jones <neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/apr/08/digital-economy-bill-quick-guide-45-measures

As discussed last night, 10-18 (and to a lesser degree, 4-9) was a
healthy dose of cancer in what was otherwise a reasonable bill, which
suffered from government insistence that it must be in there, and the
Labour whips applying considerable pressure to get people to turn up
to the vote (10:58pm according to TWFY).

1 was key to extending the Universal Service Obligation, and the main
plus point of Digital Britain, namely in extending coverage and
increasing uptake, so it seems baffling that it was dropped.

22-23 are long overdue, and give recognition to the work Channel 4 has
put in to the film industry.

31 is something of a double-edged sword, in that if previous policy
statements are anything to go by

41 is effectively codifying standard industry practice, where studios
have been submitting such works to BBFC in any case, though whether
giving legal force to PEGI is a good or bad thing is a matter for
debate.

43 would have been either a good move or a formal codification of
things which have already been standard practice in certain industries
(e.g. the term "Copyright Control" on CDs, which counter-intuitively
means "This song isn't registered with MCPS and we have made no effort
whatsoever to track down who to pay the 8% to")

45 is an important extension to the public lending right.  Libraries
have sometimes been fearful of including recent recordings in their
collections, and the provision for electronic materials allows them to
keep their collections up-to-date that much more effectively.

A series of amendments were put to the Bill by the Honorable Member
for West Bromwich East, Tom Watson (his speech indicates it is very
much a last-ditch attempt to restore sanity by narrowing the
provisions).  While the amendments themselves were later withdrawn,
this exchange during the debate illustrated the problem we face:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2010-04-07a.1115.3

I should warn you that the debate contains a number of similar analogies.

-- 
Chris Jackson