UK MPs to Allow Blocked Sites to Appeal

Liberal Democrats prepare to amend their proposed amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, but disclosure that the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) wrote the original draft has led to calls for Parliament to fully debate the Bill. Earlier this month I mentioned how Liberal Democrat Lord Clement-Jones had proposed an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill that would cause a huge shift in the way ISPs are asked to deal with copyright infringement on their networks. Amendment 120a would give courts the power to “prevent access to specified online locations for the prevention of online copyright infringement” with the threat of “injunctions” against those ISPs that have “actual knowledge of another person using their service to infringe copyright,” but has failed to “prevent copyright infringement content being accessed at or via that online location or taken reasonable steps to remove copyright infringing content from that online location (or both).” What it doesn’t spell out is exactly how ISPs are supposed to verify claims of copyright infringement nor does it offer a means of appeal.

Tags: advocacy, amendment, amendment 120a, copyright, disclosure, industry, injunctions, liberal, online, power, result, source