Digital Economy Bill outlined

The government outlined the Digital Economy Bill on Friday, hoping to roll out the legislation within the next 12 months.

One of the most contentious points in the bill is the proposal to put the onus on ISPs to take action against people suspected of illegal file-sharing.

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"Better protecting our creative communities from the threat of online infringement will ensure existing and emerging talent is rewarded and will bring new choices for online consumers," Lord Mandelson said.

Other proposals in the bill include ensuring the process of allocating domain names remains efficient and to enable the development of next-generation mobile broadband services such as LTE (long term evolution).

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Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said that government intervention was required to push the measures in the bill along.

"It includes measures to ensure universal broadband, the protection of music, film and other creative content and the future of quality local and regional news. The market will not provide these things, only government action can," Bradshaw said.

However, the bill doesn't mention anything about the target of connecting every home in the UK to a 2Mbps broadband service.


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