keyboard typing Home | News & events | Legal updates | The Communications Bill: driving the economic recovery

The Communications Bill: driving the economic recovery

26 September 2011

Following hot on the heels of the Digital Economy Act 2010 is the proposal for a new Communications Bill.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society on 14 September, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt set out his vision for the new digital Britain; one he described as ‘bold’.

Hunt’s hope is that the Communications Bill, once implemented, will promote growth in Britain’s digital economy, engender freedom of expression across all forms of media, and simultaneously give protection to legitimate content providers like musicians, artists and film studios.

Promoting growth is a key factor in the current climate. Recent BBC speculation that some ministers were pushing for £5 billion of extra Government funding to cover a range of infrastructure projects – to include investment in broadband internet access – is evidence enough that some are looking at IT technology to drive Britain into better financial straits. Although the Government has flatly denied the BBC’s speculation, the principle of opening up internet access to everyone remains a core national strategy for the Government.

Hunt was clear that telecoms providers and internet service providers (ISPs) need to work together to open up a competitive broadband network, with an emphasis on working collaboratively within a consistent regulatory framework.

And the message of promoting growth also came loud and clear this week from the Liberal Democrats’ Technology Policy Working Group, which agreed on Monday to propose the repeal of sections 3-18 of the Digital Economy Act (an Act largely supported by the Liberal Democrats when it was proposed and implemented).

The repeal, if enacted, would have the effect of removing newly-granted rights to suspend the account of copyright-infringing website owners and users, as well as site-blocking rights requiring ISPs to strangle access to infringing sites.

Calling the current legislation ‘deeply flawed and unworkable’, the Technology Policy Working Group’s focus appeared to be more on rewarding innovation and talent, and endorsing the party’s existing ongoing commitment to ensuring universal broadband access.

Interesting to note, then, that Hunt’s speech also acknowledged the concept of rewarding innovation by promoting legitimate economic growth in the digital economy; balanced against possible restrictions on profiting from non-legitimate activities on the internet.

This is where various coalition themes become relevant and real to ISPs, search engine providers and other e-commerce businesses. Although light on detail, Hunt suggests that the Communications Bill could consider stopping businesses from profiting from websites that the court has found to be unlawfully distributing content (as was the case with the Newzbin website) or displaying unlawful content (for example websites showing images of child sexual abuse).

In a striking parallel to the recent Newzbin2 and L’Oreal cases, Hunt suggested that ISPs and search engine providers need to take some positive steps to strangle access to these types of websites. Hunt floated the idea that there may be a monitoring body set up with specific remit to identify and track these types of unlawful websites (although he gives no proposals for how this will be funded or operated).

Advertisers might have to remove adverts from these sites, thereby losing a revenue stream which in itself may be legitimate. Hunt went further and also suggested that banks and credit card providers might be required to withdraw any services they provide which facilitate payments (presumably to or from unlawful websites).

The shifting focus on rewarding creativity and innovation whilst limiting the opportunity to profit from unlawful websites could, in the long term, require e-commerce businesses to have a greater emphasis on due diligence. The adage about ‘know your customer’ might become more pertinent, as businesses may need to know more about who they connect with and how they generate their revenue streams.

Reassuringly, Hunt was careful to point out that he understood the need for a light touch on regulation in order to drive growth and development. He also felt that independent regulation across multiple platforms, and protection of competition through similar regulation mechanisms to those under the existing competition law rules, seemed a sensible approach to meeting his three aims.

One thing is clear; the digital economy is set to become a new political and economic target in the search for technological innovation and growth.

© Shoosmiths. This page is for general information: it is not legal advice. Please read our full terms and conditions for details of the disclaimers and exclusions which apply.

Get in touch

Tricia Pearson

Associate Equivalent
T: 03700 86 8415
I: +44 (0)1908 48 8415
E: tricia.pearson@shoosmiths.co.uk