Many critics are already opposing the upcoming Digital Economy Bill, with such a rushed process, many believe that the bill will be passed without adequate debate and study –something that the lobbyists are avoiding since the Bill’s part about preventing piracy by controlling the internet is a very flawed assumption.

The Bill would actually cause a lot of trouble if it pushes through. First off, owners of internet cafes and locations with free WiFi would close down by themselves. As the government will now hold owners of networks as responsible for anything that goes on in their connections, giving free WiFi services would be too risky and difficult to manage.

Even worse is the fact that it will open up data packets sent to the government. These bits of data contain chunks of information including content for emails and other private correspondences –it will potentially undermine the rights to privacy in terms of home and communication.

So far, the section about preventing piracy is still sketchy, most of the details simply dictate how much control officials will have in terms of monitoring activities and in filtering internet accessibility.

There are some positive aspects to the Bill that we would still like to see on April; biggest of these is the proposed tax break for game developers. As many are already aware, the video game industry is pretty big and highly competitive –games now cost as much as a movie to produce, and with almost the same degree of talent and manpower required.

BAFTA already recognizes the creative effort that is needed to make a game and it is about time that the government does too. If this pushes through, then many UK based award winning developers like Media Molecule would be able to rise.

Read more about the new Digital Bill at TechWatch UK.

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