Opposition Parties United Against Digital Economy Bill

UK government has finally bowed to the pressure exerted by the online privacy advocates and people who are against the contentious ‘three strikes’ strategy laid out in the Digital Economy Bill that purported to permanently disconnect suspected illegal file sharers.

The government has eventually backtracked from its proposals to cut off the users who illicitly shared files over the web and has responded to a petition on the “Number 10” website.

It has been asking the Prime Minister Gordon Brown to scrap the Lord Mandelson’s proposals to ban users from the internet for using peer-to-peer file sharing.

In its response, the government says: “We will not terminate the accounts of infringers – it is very hard to see how this could be deemed proportionate except in the most extreme – and therefore probably criminal – cases”.

Another story published on Times Online is claiming that Tories and Liberal Democrat lords will be uniting to vote against the controversial clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill set to be laid on the table sometime in the next week.

The move comes as a big blow to the music and digital industry which has been hoping to crack down hard on illegal file sharers with these proposals, which would have enabled Lord Mandelson to put in place legislation against the websites hosting pirated content.