The government is pressing ahead with plans to repeal the website blocking provisions of the Digital Economy Act (DEA), Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert has announced.
The proposed web blocking provisions of the DEA have caused some controversy. Computerworld's James Firth suggests that, in theory, a court would be able to rubber stamp a blocking order for a website suggested to the Secretary of State by the music or film industry even if the website wasn't currently infringing copyright - but would likely do so at some unspecified future point.
Earlier this week, Huppert tweeted: Exciting #deact news - just spoke to gov't official who said gov't will repeal site-blocking powers (s17-18). Fantastic! #ldconf #fb
Speaking to Computerworld, Huppert said that the repeal puts the site blocking powers of the Digital Economy Act beyond not just this government but any future government, which would be forced to turn to primary legislation - a full Parliamentary Bill - in order to re-introduce them.
Huppert is now working on trying to improve the remainder of the Digital Economy Act, which will see warning letters issued to those accused of piracy and potential disconnection for those who get caught three times; so-called three strikes legislation.
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