The UK Liberal Democrat party, which is currently part of a coalition government with the Conservatives, has used its autumn conference to vote in favour of adopting a new policy paper that could see all or part of the controversial Digital Economy Act (DEA) being repealed.

The Act itself seeks to tackle "illegal" internet copyright infringement (piracy) by imposing technical measures upon Internet Service Providers (ISP) and issuing warning notices to customers when such activity is detected. However some people fear that it goes too far and could lead to overzealous censorship and or innocent broadband users being disconnected ("suspended") from the internet.


The policy paper itself actually put forward two options, the first of which (A) demanded what can only be described as a near complete repeal (sections 3–18) of the DEAct. The second (B) was aimed more at reducing red tape by culling sections 17-18 (website blocking) and only implementing 9-16 once "a robust evidence base and democratic legitimacy to justify so doing" had been found.

It's unclear whether the vote itself will make much of a difference as the party endorsed a similar position during last year's spring conference (here), which never amounted to much. Meanwhile the majority of Labour and Conservative MPs appear to support the act as it stands, albeit without mandatory website blocking (a voluntary solution is still being pursued).

The LibDem's also hope to begin an independent review of the true impact of file-sharing (P2P) on the creative industries, which points to an "insufficient evidence base" from past studies that have often been funded by Rights Holder associated groups.

Preparing the Ground: Stimulating Growth in the Digital Economy (PDF)
http://www.libdems.org.uk/siteFiles/resources/docs/conference/101%20-%20Preparing%20the%20Ground%20(IT).pdf