It seems a long time ago now, the passing of the Digital Economy Act. It’s easy to remember how long because it was rushed through just before the last general election and I’m sure that global historical events such as the re-emergence of a Liberal government (only joking) are amongst the list of dates you remember exactly what you were doing when “it” happened.
The assassination of JFK and 9/11 are the other two that spring to mind although others may well have other memorable dates – outbreak of WW2 etc. Note I don’t actually remember the JFK assassination, I was too young, but it is always one of the ones quoted.
Ofcom has updated ISPA and have said that the code of practice still has to go through various stages:
- First notices are expected to be sent out Q1 2014 (At last year November’s ISPA conference, Ofcom said spring 2013)
- The code has been sitting with government for some time which is the reason for the delay
- The costs Statutory Instrument has to be amended following Judicial Review verdict – Ofcom & ISP set up costs are now to be paid for by the Rights Holders
- Once agreed by government, code has to be notified to the Commission (3 month period), then go to parliament for approval
- Ofcom can then look at tariff setting (cost of implementing code requirements), followed by time for ISPs covered by the code to install necessary kit, etc.
- Then costs need to be agreed with rights holders and, finally, an appeals body will be set up.
So there you go. It’s still a fairly long way away until the first implementation of the Act but there is going to be plenty of other heated debate en route – surveillance/Intercept Modernisation Programme and Claire Perry’s porn blocking initiative – and who knows what else might happen in the meantime.
I think I might be waiting for a fairy to arrive and wave her magic wand over the House of Commons saying “come to your senses, come to your senses”. Maybe that’s the point at which I wake up and find that I’ve been dreaming…
PS thanks to ISPA for feedback from their briefing with Ofcom.
3 replies on “Ofcom update on Digital Economy Act implementation timescales – slipped to Q1 2014 #DEAct”
We can just hope its all been a bad dream?
I think that’s called Iolanthe.
Well, Napster broke copyright way back in the late 1990s. It remains utterly broken. The big business music and film industries ostrich-like bury their heads in the sand and refuse to move with the times and the ease of moving digital media.
They can continue to try and kill the likes of Pirate Bay for as long as they like, but until they come to the realisation that it is totally and irrevocably broken they are doomed.
As far as I am concerned the big business film and music industry does little to reward the creative artists anyway. It is a one way wealth pump for them and they deserve to go bust!
If they want to fix it the answer is VERY simple. Slap a 25% tax – globally – on all digital media. Hard disks, CDs, DVDs, pen drives, whatever… They are all cheap enough anyway. BUT there needs to be in place a global network that ensures that the 25% actually gets to the artists and not into to filthy and corrupt hands of the current big business film and music industry.
As a footnote I would add that the vast majority of my digital music collection came from my local lending library. I will deny this, of course, I am a linux user and “lame” is a wonderful tool!