Vince Cable on Wednesday scrapped plans to introduce the blocking of illegal filesharing websites, arguing the a scheme proposed by last year’s Digital Economy Act is too cumbersome and unworkable, but said that some form of plan to bring down piracy sites is still being worked on.A consultation document, launched by Cable, said that ministers intend to do more work on what other measures can be pursued to tackle online copyright infringement in an effort to stop widespread music piracy, which is increasingly spreading to television and film.To read this report in The Guardian in full, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/03/government-scraps-filesharing-sites-blockAlso see:Government scraps website-blocking plans
The government has dropped plans that would have forced ISPs to block access to websites that are used for copyright infringement.The Digital Economy Act (DEA), passed in April 2010, gives the government the power to mandate such website-blocking. On Wednesday, as part of an announcement on copyright reform in the UK, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said it will not exercise this power for now because Ofcom found the idea is unworkable.
www.zdnet.co.uk/news/intellectual-property/2011/08/03/government-scraps-website-blocking-plans-40093601/Government broadly backs Hargreaves recommendations to change IP frameworks
The UK’s intellectual property (IP) laws sometimes hamper business growth, the Government has said.In a response to an independent review of IP laws published earlier this year, the Government said it is “broadly in agreement” with the principles behind 10 recommendations made in the review and that it aims to make changes to the IP frameworks by the end of Parliament in 2015.
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