UK “Three-Strikes” Code in “Next Few Weeks”

[p2p rules]

Ofcom says it expects to publish details of how the govt plans to enforce provisions of the Digital Economy Act in the “next few weeks,” but cautions there needs to be robust sources of “legitimate” copyrighted material if the Act is to succeed and get the country to the “right place.”

Ever since the UK’s Digital Economy Act  was approved this past April the country’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) has been working overtime to create a framework for how ISPs will be forced to comply with the Act’s provision requiring “three-strikes” for repeat file-sharers and filtering of websites containing infringing material among others.

Altogether, the process is supposed to take 8 months, the maximum amount of time the Act allows for from the time of Royal Assent, the Queen’s formal approval of the legislation. It began working on the framework soon after the Act was passed, and unveiled a draft code of practice back in June.

The Open Rights Group said recently that “everything is falling behind schedule,” but according to Ofcom, a code is just a “few weeks away,” still giving it plenty of time to meet the Act’s deadline.

“We expect to publish a code in this area in the next few weeks,” Ofcom’s chief executive, Ed Richards, said recently. “It will be about enforcement, about introducing the measures that the DEA sets out. We will do it and observe how that unfolds over the next few months.”

Zeropaid

[DaBees-Knees]

The chances of something that has been cobbled together are very high. Laws that have been rushed through like this one, in the past, have invariably failed to achieve what they set out to do. Never mind being fair.