Lib Dems push to block copyright-infringing websites

Yet more changes to the Digital Economy Bill are being pursued. This time it’s the Liberal Democrat Party who are attempting to block sites which host copyright material illegally blocked in the UK altogether.

In an attempt to prevent to “specified online locations” two Lib Dem peers, Lord Razzall and Lord Clement-Jones are pushing to add the following clause to the Bill:

“The High Court shall have power to grant an injunction against a service provider, requiring it to prevent access to online locations specified in the order of the Court.” It continues: “…whether a substantial proportion of the content accessible at or via each specified online location infringes copyright.”

If the Lib Dems were successful in getting these amendments through there's a chance this part of the clause could end up having implications for established sites in Britain including YouTube. If playing by pedantic rules technically a site such as YouTube is riddled with copyright material posted without consent from the copyright owners. Of course, this very much depends on what the Bill would consider the level of content to be a "substantial proportion" of copyright material.

Currently, web filtering doesn’t exist in the UK but it does exist in China and potentially could be introduced to Australia in the near future.

Although The Digital Economy Bill was announced back in 2009 it is feasible for the government to make tweaks, add new clauses or remove existing clauses at any time.

Earlier this week concerns erupted over the effect the Digital Economy Bill could have over free public WiFi access throughout the UK.