DEA is the UK’s legal response to online piracy. Activation has been awaiting an official code of practice from OFCOM, the regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. This had been expected last year, but is now expected this year. OFCOM’s draft code said that internet users should receive three warning letters from their ISP if they are suspected of online copyright infringement. Users who received more than three warnings would be ‘blacklisted’, and the blacklist made available to copyright holders. ISPs could be required to suspend the internet access if those users were found to be illegally downloading copyrighted material.
Now Harriet Harman, a senior member of the current Labour opposition (she is Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister) has urged that government should “implement the Digital Economy Act under a clear timetable including getting on with the notification letters and publishing the code of practice.”
She was at the University of Hertfordshire speaking on the UK music industry. The gist of her speech is that the music industry is important to the economy, but insufficiently protected. “The British music industry generates £3.8 bn per year and is the second largest exporter of music in the world with a 12% share of global sales of recorded music.” But, she went on, “You can't run a business effectively if the products you want to sell don’t generate revenue because they are downloaded for free.”
Her solution is vigorous enforcement of the DEA. Government, she said, should “lead and set a deadline for agreement in the industry for site blocking, search engine responsibility and digital advertising. The music industry – and other creative industries - say that if the government got a move-on, they could do this by May this year.” Furthermore, she added, government should “Make it clear that if there’s no agreement, this will be legislated for in the Communications Bill.”