Digital Economy Bill Passed, Better Pause Those Torrents

Late Wednesday night the British Digital Economy Bill was passed in an underwhelming turn out in the House of Commons. The bill, which gives the Government the ability to block ‘œa location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright’, passed 189 to 47.

While the controversial ‘œclause 18′ that could of given the the Government broad powers to block sites was removed, the bill now requires a court to grant the secretary of state for business powers to block sites which offer copy written material or facilitate the offering of copy written material.

However Liberal Democrat Don Foster said that the measures were too broad and ‘œcould apply to Google’ because sites such as YouTube allow users to upload potentially copy written content. He said that the phrase ‘œlikely to be used’ suggested that a site could be blocked based on its supposed intentions instead of its actual actions. It was also noted that sites such as Wikileaks could be blocked because it essentially deals in copywritten material, with concerns about freedom of speech raised.

Videogame supporting MP Tom Watson voted against the bill and found it ‘œvery upsetting’ that it had passed. He also pointed out the “20,000 people who have taken the time to e-mail their MPs about this in the last seven days alone” demanding more debate on this issue. Concerns have been raised on how quickly the bill was voted through: just two hours of actual debate with very few MPs in attendance. The Government had been urged to wait until after the election, but instead pushed onwards to get it passed before May 6th.

Content companies will be the ones most pleased with the bill which gives them more power to prevent illegal filesharing. However there is a threat of them becoming overly litigious and arguably highlights the power that these companies have in the forming of government legislation.