House of Lords passes Digital Economy Bill

The House of Lords has announced that it has passed the Digital Economy Bill, which is aimed at tackling illegal downloading by broadband users amongst other things, and the Bill is now to be rushed through the Commons before the general election which is thought to be scheduled for May.

The controversial Digital Economy Bill has now been passed by the House of Lords it has been announced, and the next step will be to rush it through the House of Commons before the next general election, which is thought to be scheduled for the start of May.

The Bill was put forward by the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, and has faced fierce opposition and criticism from many campaign groups, consumers, and Internet Service Providers. Part of the Bill is aimed at tackling online piracy and copyright infringement by broadband users and websites, and it is these areas that have caused the most controversy.

One of the areas to be criticised involves forcing Internet Service Providers to block websites that allow illegal file sharing and those that have a substantial amount of copyrighted material on them. However, those opposed to this move said that the regulation could lead to “blocking based on accusation rather than a court injunction.”

An official from the Open Rights Group said that Mandelson was “preparing to rush through this draconian legislation without democratic debate”. He added: “We are calling for massive campaign of citizens to demand that their MPs debate this dangerous bill.” A spokesperson for the Pirate Party UK added: “The public will not respect a law that was quite literally written by the record industry, for the record industry. As it stands, the bill is fatally flawed, and fundamentally unjust.”

Source – BBC