http://torrentfreak.com/uk-governmen...-plans-110803/


Plans to block websites alleged to facilitate copyright infringement are to
be dropped by the UK government. The announcement was made by Business secretary
Vince Cable following a review by communications regulator OFCOM which found
that blocking provisions in the Digital Economy Act would not be effective.
Nevertheless, website blocking will be attempted, just by other means.

Outlining the government’s response to the Hargreaves
report, business secretary Vince Cable today confirmed that the website
blocking provisions put in place under the country’s controversial Digital
Economy Act will be abandoned.

As widely predicted, a review by communications regulator OFCOM found that
the plans were unworkable.



“Ofcom was also asked to consider whether the site-blocking provisions in the
Digital Economy Act would work in practice,” began today’s statement from the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

“The Act contains reserve powers to allow courts to order that websites
dedicated to copyright infringement are blocked. The regulator concluded the
provisions as they stand would not be effective and so the Government will not
bring forward the Act’s site-blocking provisions at this time.”

While some will see the decision as a victory for common sense, it does not
necessarily follow that there will be no site blocking in the UK.

As the recent MPA v BT case showed all too clearly, existing legislation (the
Copyrights, Design and Patents Act) is now deemed powerful enough to carry out
the same function. The ruling
in that case ordered ISP BT to block all subscriber access to Usenet indexing
site Newzbin2.

However, without the assistance of the now-nuked provisions of the Digital
Economy Act, copyright holders may be forced to go “the long way round” to get
sites blocked, i.e through the legal system and existing legislation.

But as complicated as it was, the Newzbin2 case had a number of special
features (such as a previous UK court ruling against Newzbin1) which helped the
case along and through to ultimate success for the MPA. Relatively speaking,
future legal attempts will not be as easy.

“The MPA focus until now has been on this Newzbin case and not beyond it,”
the MPA told TorrentFreak when asked about future site-blocking plans. “Although
there will be other targets, no decisions have yet been made.”

“However, other rights-holders have been watching the case with interest and
may well have their own target rogue sites,” the MPA concludes.

But of course, there are still ongoing discussions between the government,
rights-holders and ISPs concerning the voluntary
blocking of websites, something which the MPA and international music
industry will be keen to pursue.

Other elements of Cable’s announcement, such as the creation of a Digital
Copyright Exchange, the relaxation of laws which currently forbid UK citizens
from format-shifting their own legally purchased media, and the permitting of
parody works without copyright-holder permission, can be read
here.