Digital Britain may already have been published back in June and the consultation on Mandelson’s proposed changes may already have closed, but some folk are still making their views heard.
The All Party Parliamentary Communications Group (apComms) has published a report it began compiling in April, effectively calling on Mandelson to stop and start again: “Much of the problem with illegal sharing of copyrighted material has been caused by the rightsholders, and the music industry in particular, being far too slow in getting their act together and making popular legal alternatives
available.
“We do not believe that disconnecting end users is in the slightest bit consistent with policies that attempt to promote eGovernment, and we recommend that this approach to dealing with illegal file-sharing should not be further considered.
“We think that it is inappropriate to make policy choices in the UK when policy options are still to be agreed by the EU Commission and EU Parliament in their negotiations over the ‘Telecoms Package’. We recommend that the government terminate their current policy-making process, and restart it with a new consultation once the EU has made its decisions.”
Zing!
That doesn’t make it a forgone conclusion; apComms is not a legislative body. But its views will be taken in to account by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills as it finalises its Digital Britain implementation.
The group also called for a review in to behavioural advertising techniques to protect consumers.