Digital Economy what?

I try to track all things related to the Digital Economy. Most recently that means seeing a lot of references to the UK Digital Economy Bill.

Those references mostly relate to the fact that the UK Government is attempting through this to strengthen copyright protection through a variant of the "three strikes" rules. This is creating its own mini outrage in the UK.

The idea that you might put a legislative obligation on an intermediary to help prevent up or down stream crime is not unusual, as the things pawn brokers have to do attests. Nor is theidea of specifically targetting the "conduit" of telecommunications, as the old campaigns mounted by the PMG against SP bookies arrests.

I can see the idea that protecting intellectual propertyy and hence endeavour is significant in the digital economy but it hardly seems to be a core issue. Meanwhile the Bill seems to only cover inconsequential matters. Put it this way, how rapidly the UK advances to being a Digital Economy will not be much influenced by this Bill.

What would a Digital Economy Bill in Australia look like? Firstly it would have to deal with the necessary legislative merger to match our converged regulator model. Secondly it would have to deal with the need for greater speed in adjusting regulatory frameworks. Thirdly it would need to institutionalise the concept of an "independent" regulator.

Oh that reminds me I must blog about Henry....