The Government has announced that it intends to repeal sections 17 and 18 of the controversial Digital Economy Act, which give the Secretary of State the power to call for new regulations on the blocking of websites.
A recent report by Ofcom, the telecoms regulator in the UK, said that the procedures set out under sections 17 and 18 would not be useful to rights holders due to unpredictability, expense and slowness. Ofcom also set out that recent case law has shown that existing copyright laws are sufficient for rights holders to enforce their rights against Internet piracy websites, for example the cases of Newzbin2 and the Pirate Bay.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has taken Ofcom’s report into consideration and decided that, on the basis of the report, sections 17 and 18 should be repealed.