Digital Britain: piracy-battling strategy revealed

The UK government has now issued its final Digital Britain report, alongside a speech in the House of Commons by culture secretary Ben Bradshaw. The main part of interest for the music industry is the 'Creative Industries in the Digital World' section. Here's the main points:- Piracy is a serious offence, says the government, and it's looking for a reduction “of the order of 70-80% in the incidence of unlawful file-sharing”.- It stresses the importance of offering legal business models that “give the consumer or the fan highly affordable and convenient content”, as well as education for consumers and parents about the “dos and don'ts” of copyright law.- “Commercially-led solutions remain by far the preferred approach”. The government will look to Ofcom to work with the government and other regulators to set out guidelines on how technical piracy-fighting measures can be introduced without conflicting with consumer privacy.- “The Government is therefore consulting on a proposal to legislate to give Ofcom a duty to take steps aimed at reducing copyright infringement”. Now that's a sentence.- But it specifies that ISPs will have to accept two specific conditions – warning customers when informed in “an agreed format” that they've been illegally file-sharing, [...]