Vince Cable, the business secretary, will say on Wednesday that government plans to block illegal filesharing websites under the controversial Digital Economy Act are in effect unworkable.

David Cameron is to resist calls for international regulation of the web by Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 summit. The French president will table proposals for controls on the internet on the first day of the conference of world leaders in Deauville, Normandy.

A report for the UK government has advised against implementing a U.S.-style “fair use” copyright policy, which Google had lobbied for and many content owners had opposed. But it does suggest creating a “Digital Copyright Exchange” to make licensing of content easier. And it urges ministers to finally decriminalise consumer…

The UK’s stalled graduated-response anti-piracy legislation is now more likely to come to fruition, after two of the leading ISPs failed in their bid to have the law overturned.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and large media owners have submitted opposing responses to the digitally-focused review of the UK’s intellectual property framework.

UK media regulator Ofcom has been asked by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt to review one part of anti-piracy law in the country’s Digital Economy Act “to assess whether (it) could work”. That part is a clause which would allow courts, at rightsholders’ behest, to level injunctions forcing ISPs to block…

Three Wednesday announcements mean the UK’s approach to digital copyright infringement may be majorly halted and started over, despite months of wrangling over controversial legislation. 1) ISPs BT (NYSE: BT) and TalkTalk have been granted a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act, which was passed by the last, Labour…

UK royalties collector PRS For Music has resurrected the idea ISPs should pay for copyrighted content that their networks transfer without authorisation. In a think paper, its chief economist Will Page writes: “With the introduction of the Digital Economy Act, the harm caused by the problem of piracy has to…

Well, this is surreal - the new UK prime minister David Cameron doing an old-buddies routine with Facebook’s CEO, part of a UK exercise using websites to hear citizens’ suggestions for financial austerity measures…

The UK government’s controversial Digital Economy Bill was voted for by a majority of House Of Commons MPs Wednesday night - giving music labels, movie studios and other sections of the creative industries a landmark “graduated response” approach to unauthorised downloading of media content. Under a code overseen by media…

*Time* for Rupert Murdoch to mobilise the lobbyists? Search engines would be exempted in UK law from any liability for copyright infringement, under a remarkable amendment (292) proposed to the Digital Economy Bill. Conservative Lord Lucas is proposing a specific new clause so that… “Every provider of a publicly accessible…

The UK government, as expected, will write in to November’s upcoming Digital Economy Bill a French-style, graduated-response method of tackling unauthorised content downloading, controversially leading to eventual possible suspension of ISP accounts for persistent infringers. Business, Innovation & Skills minister Peter Mandelson told the government’s C&binet creative industries gathering: “What…

The music industry stands at a critical juncture (no, really this time) - but some people don’t think it’s capable of making leaps bold enough to avoid financial oblivion. Two years ago, Midem-goers fretted over whether dropping DRM would satisfy consumers frustrated at digital limitations on their purchases; last year,…