MusicTank

The consultation [arising from the publication of the Digital Britain report] set out proposed legislation that would introduce two obligations to be imposed on ISPs by Ofcom - to send notifications to subscribers alleged by rights holdrs to be infringing copyright, and to monitor the number of notifications each subscriber is associated with; the ISP would then make data available to rights holders on receipt of a court order.  [At that time] BERR [now BIS] also proposed a mechanism whereby Ofcom would be granted reserve powers to oblige ISPs to utilise specified technical protection measures against repeat infringers should these two obligations prove to be deficient in reducing infringement.

It is the mechanism around this introduction of potential further technical measures where thinking has evolved.

In addition, BIS - the government department for Business, Innovation & Skills [formerly BERR] is considering the case for adding into the list of technical measures the power, as a last resort, to suspend a subscriber's account.  Finally it feels it would be better if it were able to be more specific in the legislation about the way costs are shared bt industry parties.

This paper provides guidance on these issues:

• Power to direct the introduction of technical measures;
• Suspension of accounts;
• Costs.

BIS welcomes public and stakeholder responses to be received by September 29th 2009.  All details including deadline extension and how to submit your responses are detailed in this paper.