The UK Digital Economy Act (DEA) was originally created with the intention of scaring pirates enough that they will not download, steal, or share any more files, but it seems that even with all its good intentions, the act has done little to stop pirates from doing what they want. Last week a group of policymakers, parliamentarians, and industry leaders all met in London to find out why.
However, it turns out the real problem is actually the DEA itself, given the fact that it is not actually law yet, but instead is still sitting in Brussels waiting to be approved by the European Commission before it is decided who should actually pay for putting the plan into action. At the same time, the code that was created by Ofcom to help direct how the new law would work is still sitting and gathering dust in someone’s desk at the Department of Culture.
Since its creation the DEA has always drawn a lot of debate given the fact that it is really just a warning letter system that begs the question of how effective it could be. It also has hit a lot of nerves in the communication sector because the providers are not willing to take on the costs of implementing it, and do not feel they should have to. However, for at least a few more months, if not more, it looks as if no one is going to have to stress out because for the moment the DEA is actually DOA.
The issue with this one is that technology legislation is always a couple of years behind the times. By the time the big guns in the tech (or in this case the media) industry actually get the politicians to do something to protect IP the game has changed and the methods etc have often changed.
Sadly, the EU will be the biggest problem with legislation like this. The law will be unnecessarily complex, require further ratification within member states (which will like add more complexity) and by then it’ll be largely ineffective. Cumbersome to interpret and difficult to enforce properly.
The best move recently is the govt’s attempts to help smaller owners of IP get an easier route to legal remedy through a simplified version of IP legal process. Hopefully it’ll help.