Ofcom's Initial Obligations Code of Practice for tackling UK based internet copyright infringement (piracy) by broadband ISP customers, which is a significant part of the controversial 2010 Digital Economy Act (DEA), still hasn't been notified to the European Commission (EC) for approval.

Earlier this year the UK governments Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was forced to admit that its tough new measures would not be implemented until spring 2012 at the earliest (here) and any new delays could push that timetable back even further.

Since then Ofcom has ruled that the DEA's provisions for website blocking "as they stand would not be effective" (here), while TalkTalk and BT have also been granted a second chance with "permission to appeal and expedition" against the findings of an initially flopped Judicial Review of the act (here).

Separately a Working Group for the Liberal Democrat party plan to use their forthcoming Autumn Conference in Birmingham (17 to 21 September 2011) to vote on a new proposal that could see all or part of the DEA being repealed or at least weakened (Working Group Proposal .PDF). Adoption of such a proposal would cause friction as the LibDem's are a part of the current coalition government alongside Conservative party ministers.


On top of all that a number of recent court cases (example) have cast serious and fundamental doubt over the reliability of related IP address based evidence, which at best (when it's not incorrect) can only identify the connection owner. This could conceivably lead to innocent people and businesses being targeted and possibly even disconnected ("suspended") from their internet access.

Crucially James Firth's Slightly Right of Centre blog was able to confirm yesterday that the UK government had notified its related Cost Sharing Order to the European Commission (EC) on 8th August. However Ofcom's Initial Obligations Code, which covers the copyright infringement notification (ISP warning) letters and appeals processes for broadband providers, was nowhere to be seen.

The EC's approval process takes around 3-months to complete before the UK parliament is able to vote, which could potentially push implementation of the act back to next summer. The UK government could still conceivably meet a late spring deadline but only if they bulldozed their way forward.

Separately Rights Holders, ISPs and the government are still attempting to establish a new Voluntary Code of Practice for blocking any internet website that is deemed to "facilitate" piracy (here). More discussions have been taking place this month and we expect the final proposal to be watered down with some concessions for ISPs and public services. So far nothing has been agreed.