Posted: 07th Aug, 2010 By: MarkJ
The first consultation covering Ofcom's
Initial Draft Code of Practice for tackling internet copyright infringement / unlawful file sharing (p2p) by UK broadband ISP customers (
original news), a requirement of the
Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA), finished on 30th July. Since then Ofcom has slowly been publishing its mass of responses and we've linked a small selection of the most interesting ones below.
* ISPA Response (ISP Association)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/ISPA.pdf
* BPI Response (Music Industry)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/bpi.pdf
* BT Response (ISP)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/BT.pdf
* Everything Everywhere / T-Mobile + Orange (Mobile Operator) Response
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/Everything_Everywhere_Limit1.pdf
* Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) Response (Copyright Enforcement Group)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/FAST.pdf
* KCOM (ISP)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/KCOM.pdf
* LINX (London Internet Hub for ISPs)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/LINX.pdf
* The Open Rights Group (Digital and Consumer Rights Organisation)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/ORG.pdf
* BSkyB - Sky Broadband (ISP)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/Sky.pdf
* TalkTalk (ISP)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/TalkTalkGroup.pdf
* Telefonica / O2 (ISP/Mobile operator)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/Telefonica_O2_UK_LIMITED.pdf
* UK Music (Music Industry)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/UK_Music.pdf
UK Film Council (Film Industry)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/UK_Film_Council.pdf
Westminster City Council (Local Government)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/copyright-infringement/responses/Westminster_City_Council.pdf
It's hard to summarise so many replies into an article and most of the arguments from both sides have been heard before anyway. However we would recommend reading the key replies from BT , the BPI , the ISPA and also BSkyB. Sky in particular runs a broadband ISP service but have a conflict of interest with their media empire and usually prefer to defend that cash cow than the rights of consumers.
This consultation was only the first in a series (of three) that Ofcom intend to issue this calendar year related to measures introduced in the DEA. Interestingly they were supposed to start the 2nd, which covered enforcement of the code and its appeals process, last month. It's hard to see how Ofcom could possibly hope to weigh up all of these responses with the limited time they have.