UK ISP TalkTalk ( AOL UK ) has welcomed last week's move (here) by the governments Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, which appeared to shift the costly and complicated burden of tackling "illegal" internet copyright infringement (piracy) away from ISPs and on to content providers.

Recent attempts to force internet providers into blocking piracy websites were branded as "not effective" by Ofcom (communications regulator) and have faced stiff opposition, although a Voluntary Code solution between Rights Holders and ISPs is still quietly being pursued.


As always the devil will be in the detail and we've yet to see precisely how all of these elements, except for some of the cost sharing, will be handled. A cross-industry body has been proposed to help identify infringing websites and a "streamlined legal process" would then make the final decision, although it's unclear how robust that last measure will be or whether all ISPs will be forced to implement the block itself (smaller providers would have some difficulty).

Meanwhile the Digital Economy Act (DEA) is still very much present, despite concerns about weaknesses in the appeals process and a danger that innocent users could find themselves being unfairly disconnected ("suspended") from the internet. On top of that some consumers have already found ways to avoid the problem almost entirely (example).