Business Secretary Vince Cable was on strident form this morning, pledging to drop controversial web-blocking from the government’s plan to
tackle internet piracy. But his Conservative colleagues at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Ed Vaizey and Jeremy Hunt, disagree. Ed Vaizey, the minister responsible for the
creative industries, is to chair a meeting on 20th September with internet service providers, copyright holders and other stakeholders, and web-blocking is on the agenda.
Originally, the government proposed blocking broadband access at addresses (both real and virtual) where illegal downloads took place. The prevailing consensus suggested that such a practice is unworkable and potentially unfair: why, for instance, should a café be barred just because one of its customers infringes copyright, and could one know which customer to prosecute? Hence Vince Cable’s comments today. However, the DCMS still envisages using web-blocking in some capacity and it is likely that the meeting next month will discuss which venues and forums should be exempted from an overall web-blocking strategy, as well as how that system might be policed. It
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