Government drops website blocking - UK

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Plans to block websites that host copyright infringing material are to be dumped by the government.

Business secretary Vince Cable announced the change following a review of the policy by telecoms regulator Ofcom.

Website blocking was one of the key provision contained in the Digital Economy Act.

Internet Service Providers had objected to the idea that copyright owners could compel them to cut-off some sites.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14372698

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I added - UK to the title for clarity.

[Turborama]

1. (UK) Government scraps plan to block illegal filesharing websites

Source: The Guardian

Business secretary Vince Cable says site blocking is too cumbersome and unworkable, and work is being done on other ways to tackle online copyright infringement

Mark Sweney | Wednesday August 3 2011 11.37 BST

Vince Cable on Wednesday scrapped plans to introduce the blocking of illegal filesharing websites, arguing the scheme proposed by last year's Digital Economy Act is too cumbersome and unworkable, but said that some form of plan to bring down piracy sites is still being worked on.

A consultation document, launched by Cable, said that ministers intend to do more work on what other measures can be pursued to tackle online copyright infringement in an effort to stop widespread music piracy, which is increasingly spreading to television and film.

The business secretary said that people will also be able to make copies of music and other media for personal use, confirming well-leaked plans to relax the current law that makes it illegal to copy the contents of a CD they own onto an iPod or other digital device.

"This brings the law into line with, frankly, comon sense," said Cable, responding to the Hargreaves report on the future of UK copyright law, which recommended the changes back in May 2011.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/03/government-scraps-filesharing-sites-block

[napoleon_in_rags]

2. I stopped using those years ago.

Accessible Mp3s at reasonable price ($0.99) killed it for me.

OS makers need a new tech, called "change jar", which you can fill up with your card, then use to buy little things online anonymously like newspapers, without sending credit card info to the four corners of the earth. That would up purchases of little things like mp3s vastly, if we knew we had a super low-liability payment system.

[Bosonic]

4. Bitcoin?

http://www.bitcoin.org/

Maybe it's not quite ready for the bigtime right now, but soon...

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. If its anon, low risk, and mapped to real currency I'm in. nt

[Bosonic]

6. Still quite new

But one to watch

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page

[saras]

3. Banning copying is like forcing cars to have a person with a lantern walk in front of them...

Copying creates value. The creator of the original didn't create all the value, the copying did. We are forbidding people to produce, use, and share this new value because the corporations who have taken control of copyright law think they have a right to the majority of that value, whether they do the work or not.

I'm sorry, but for an entertainer to think that they have a right to be paid every time someone references something they did fifty years ago is a bizarrely extreme form of greed that only seems acceptable because it's surrounded by so much worse. If you want to live off your retirement as a pop star, put your money into real estate instead of cocaine when you're young, like the rest of us.

When/if corporations crash, they will take copyright law as we presently know it with them. Good riddance.