I wanted to wax a little lyrical about the Digital Economy Bill, or: 'The Ruination of the Internets'. 
 
So, it's law now. We will soon find out exactly what measures will be put in place to enforce the various clauses of the DEB. It had a whole two hours of debate put into it before it was rushed through parliament in a perfect example of how the system can be manipulated. 
There are any number of things wrong with it which didn't get the solid discussion in public that they required an I will talk a little about them here. 
First and most horrendous is the amendment to clause 8 which allows the secretary of state for business (currently an unelected peer no less!) to put forward websites which he/she feels 'is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright'. That a phenomenally vague statement and one of the areas which should have been cleared up by proper debate. Admittedly it has to satisfy the court first but it's still a lot of power in one man's hands. 
To clarify, this is sufficiently vague as to include Google as a site which could be used in connection with copyright infringement and the quote 'Likely to be used' means that the sos-business can infer the intent of a website as he sees fit and submit it for blacklisting. 
It almost snuck through with a clause allowing anyone to use an image they found on the web for their own purposes without asking the owner first but fortunately that clause didn't make it. 
Second, the various sections which deal with alleged breaches of copyright make it clear that the person responsible is the person whose internet connection is being used. Naively this counjours images of people leaching wireless connections and downloading as much as possible. I'm not saying this won't happen but I can't see it being a major problem. What worries me is public internet connection such as cafes or hotels. They surely can't be expected to check what every one of their users is up to on the internet. I suspect what we'll see instead is measures taken to filter browsing at an even more local level which can't possibly be a good thing in terms of usability and service for their customers. 
 
This seems to me to be yet another example of an old system forcing new technology to work with it's old fashioned and out moded model and the British government's willingness to be lead by big business rather than developing the technology by working towards new models and practices that will benefit everyone in the long run.