UK Telecom Industry attacks Digital Economy Bill amendment

A group of Internet companies including BT, Orange, Google and Virgin Media have strongly criticized an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill approved last week by the House of Lords, saying it would harm the status of the UK as a center for digital business.

The companies have attacked amendment 120A, which would give courts the power to force ISPs to block access to sites accused of copyright infringement.

In an open letter published on Tuesday in the Financial Times, the companies, along with the ISP Association (ISPA), celebrity Stephen Fry and others, said the measure was "very poor lawmaking" that had been "rushed through" at the tail end of the parliamentary session with no kind of consultation with consumers or industry.

The amendment is an addition to the Digital Economy Bill, outlined in the Queen's speech in November 2009, which would implement new measures to tackle copyright-infringing file-sharers. The bill would also allow the government to take over the allocation and registration of domain names by UK-based registries.