Digital Economy Bill May Force Youtube To Reduce Its UK Service

UK's Liberal Democratic Party has called for certain amendments in the Digital Economy Bill, which would force internet service providers in Britain to block websites that contain a massive amount of copyright infringing content. 

The amendment which has been approved by the House of Lords, which was in the process of reviewing the bill, may penalise many popular websites operating in the UK including the highly popular online video viewing service, YouTube.

One of the clauses in the proposed amendment read “The High Court shall have power to grant an injunction against an [internet] service provider, requiring it to prevent access to online locations specified in the order of the Court.” 

The clause went on to state that the website will be blocked if a large portion of its content infringes copyright. 

The proposed clause, which is being called 'Preventing access to specified online locations', was put forward by Liberal Democratic party members Lord Razzall and Lord Clement-Jones. 

The Digital Economy Bill, which was first announced in 2009, has been criticised by many for its complicated and extremely stringent laws including the one which allows ISP's to give confidential customer information to copyright holders who wish to sue customers that are found file sharing.