alihaig
Active Member
The Digital Britain Report by Lord Carter has been released today, and has some interesting and possibly controversial recommendations.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5783.aspx
Firstly on Illegal Filesharing:
On Broadband availability:
The Full report is available here: http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digital_britain_interimreportjan09.pdf
The Quotes above are just from the summary, so may not be too helpful. From what the press are saying the basic recommendation is for every household in Britain to have access to FREE 2Mb Broadband by 2012. There is also a recommendation on introducing legislation to force providers to monitor and hand over information on file sharers.
The report also covers things like Digital TV and Radio, and how to move forward with them, I'm not too sure on the details of those bits yet though.
So what do people think?
Personally I think increasing broadband coverage has got to be a good thing, and 2Mb seems a sensible level to set as a minimum - just about everything will run at 2Mb and not everybody needs super fast connections. I am not so convinced by the "free" aspect. Working to bring down costs is great, and from a selfish point of view I would love free broadband but there are already companies offering 8Mb services for less than ?10 per month, so I think it would be better to pay for what you use, rather than the taxpayer picking up the bill. From the file sharing side, I can see why they want to stop copyright theft, but I am deeply suspicious of any attempts to legislate to enforce the monitoring of peoples connections as a matter of course, rather than in exceptional cases (if at all).
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5783.aspx
Firstly on Illegal Filesharing:
Our response to the consultation on peer-to-peer file sharing sets out our intention to legislate, requiring ISPs to notify alleged infringers of rights (subject to reasonable levels of proof from rights-holders) that their conduct is unlawful. We also intend to require ISPs to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities), to be made available to rights-holders together with personal details on receipt of a court order. We intend to consult on this approach shortly, setting out our proposals in detail.
On Broadband availability:
We will develop plans for a digital Universal Service Commitment to be effective by 2012, delivered by a mixture of fixed and mobile, wired and wireless means. Subject to further study of the costs and benefits, we will set out our plans for the level of service which we believe should be universal. We anticipate this consideration will include options up to 2Mb/s.
We are inviting the BBC to play a leading role, just as it has in digital broadcast, through marketing, cross-promotion and provision of content to drive interest in taking up broadband. With other public service organisations, the BBC can drive the development of platforms with open standards available to all content providers and device manufacturers alike.
The Full report is available here: http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digital_britain_interimreportjan09.pdf
The Quotes above are just from the summary, so may not be too helpful. From what the press are saying the basic recommendation is for every household in Britain to have access to FREE 2Mb Broadband by 2012. There is also a recommendation on introducing legislation to force providers to monitor and hand over information on file sharers.
The report also covers things like Digital TV and Radio, and how to move forward with them, I'm not too sure on the details of those bits yet though.
So what do people think?
Personally I think increasing broadband coverage has got to be a good thing, and 2Mb seems a sensible level to set as a minimum - just about everything will run at 2Mb and not everybody needs super fast connections. I am not so convinced by the "free" aspect. Working to bring down costs is great, and from a selfish point of view I would love free broadband but there are already companies offering 8Mb services for less than ?10 per month, so I think it would be better to pay for what you use, rather than the taxpayer picking up the bill. From the file sharing side, I can see why they want to stop copyright theft, but I am deeply suspicious of any attempts to legislate to enforce the monitoring of peoples connections as a matter of course, rather than in exceptional cases (if at all).