Internet Giants Want Digital Britian Revisions

Reps from Google, eBay, Facebook, Yahoo! send open letter to Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, urging him to remove Clause 17 from the bill which would allow him to “introduce additional technical measures or increase monitoring of user data even where no illegal practice has taken place.”

Several of Europe’s largest online companies, including Google, eBay, Facebook, and Yahoo!, have sent an open letter to Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, expressing their “grave concerns regarding the inclusion of measures which risk stifling innovation and damaging the Government’s vision for a Digital Britain.”

Specifically, they are urging that he remove Clause 17 from the bill which they say opens up a path for “arbitrary measures” by giving the Secretary of State “unprecedented and sweeping powers to amend the Copyright, Design and Patent Act.”

“This power could be used, for example, to introduce additional technical measures or increase monitoring of user data even where no illegal practice has taken place,” it reads. “This would discourage innovation, impose unnecessary costs, potentially unsettling the careful balance of responsibilities for enabling market change which Lord Carter outlined in the Digital Britain report.”

They are concerned that it could ultimately jeopardize legitimate consumers of current technology as well as future technological developments, and that this uncertainty will dissuade people from creating new business models centered around creative content.

“The industry as a whole had hoped that the outcome of Digital Britain would be a clear, workable set of principles by which the industry could operate,” it goes on to say. “On the contrary, Clause 17 creates uncertainty for consumers and businesses and puts at risk the UK’s leading position in a digital Europe.”

Stay tuned.

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