The Digital Economy Bill has become one of the most heavily debated topics on this site. Posts related to it often generate a large number of comments, but today’s have done far more than that. A bit of background first for anyone new to the story or catching up on it. The Digital Economy Bill has

The Liberal Democrats have now withdrawn their support for the Digital Economy Bill, in a revision of the original plan to vote against certain elements in the “washup” (the last-minute rush to pass laws without debate or detailed scrutiny at the end of a Parliament). Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip announced on Twitter earlier

Last week we reported that, following the concessions forced on the government, Don Foster MP is broadly happy with the Digital Economy Bill’s proposals on illicit downloads. Jim Killock of the The Open Rights Group has a different take on the situation: The Digital Economy Bill should be opposed by Liberal Democrats. Mandelson’s Bill seeks to reduce illicit

The Liberal Democrats today published their Freedom Bill, designed to "roll back the draconian laws passed by successive Labour and Conservative administrations". You can read more about it on the party's Freedom Bill website. Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem shadow home secretary, sets out the case for the bill in a Guardian article: The Liberal Democrats are determined to resist the slow death by a...

The net is all a-Twitter with frustration and despair over Lib-Dem and Tory amendment 120a to the Digital Economy Bill. Why are we wasting our energies on this action while there are still much, MUCH greater threats to our rights and freedoms still inside the bill's content?

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham argues that it was the UK’s broken Parliament – an antiquated Lords, a whipped Commons – which got us into the legislative mess of Labour’s Digital Economy Bill. The only way to fix it, says James, is to vote for a new

Responding to today’s publication of Lord Carter’s report into the future of the digital economy, the The Interim Digital Britain Report, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, writes about the Digital Economy Bill: The Open Rights Group would like to thank the Lib Dems for taking a strong policy stance against the Digital Economy Bill’s disconnection and web blocking proposals. The biggest danger now is that Parliament will not debate or amend the Bill at

The Digital Economy Bill, currently at the report stage in the Lords has caused concern, as Lib Dem peers Lord Razzall and Lord Clement-Jones are seeking an amendment to allow site blocking for copyright infringement. Earlier this week, Open Rights Group posted an appeal for people to write to the peers, asking them to drop the

Although Labour, with Conservative support, managed to ram through the Digital Economy Bill, that’s not quite the end of the matter as far as votes in Parliament are concerned. That’s because one concession the Liberal Democrats did manage to extract was the provision that no ‘technical measures’ (i.e. cutting off people’s internet connections) can be introduced