Damp squib, with a possible joyful outcome

So 25,000 of us made a huge noise about the Digital Economy Bill - which is now law.

Let's see a summary of what is involved for the protection of copyright.

1. Copyright owners allege abuse and within one month send a copyright infringement report to the ISP.

2. Within another month the ISP has to notify its subscriber, by letter, giving

- the extent of the infringement
- the copyright owners efforts to provide a legal alternative
- the appeal & legal issues

So what?

Well there are some interesting issues here;

How does the copyright owner come to find out about abuse? I guess they try abusing the web themselves and see if they can download copyright material...

What is the extent of the 'legal alternatives' that the copyright owner must provide - I mean is this a valid, legal source of the alleged infringing material. Wow, if it is this is a BIG step. You see the internet is global, but most copyright infringement takes place because music, movies, CDs, DVD, are released in one country before another: a sure way to entice people to file share on the global internet! But now if the copyright owners have to show how anyone can get a legal download, they will have to release their media globally, all at one time. A true revolution and a wonderful breakdown of the use of copyright to control 'distribution right', which is was never intended to do.

Could I be wrong? Yes, probably Ofcom hasn't the guts to write the 'code' this way, but just to insist on listing a few irrelevant legal download sites. Not containing the one thing you wanted.

Added later

Ofcom has issued its code, there is NOTHING in it about the obligation for copyright owners to provide details about how to get legal downloads of the material they claim is infringing...

This is simply not good enough, they have to meet their side of the bargain.