The long-awaited Digital Britain report is out, and I’ve taken a look at it twice. First up, the key points:
We won’t be paying for a copyright quango, but our phones will be taxed to finance next-generation broadband – and while the government isn’t keen on criminalising file sharers, ISPs might have no choice but to throttle offenders’ connections.
Then, my take on it:
Digital Britain may not be as revolutionary as some people might have liked – but it’s nowhere near as bad as many of us feared.
If reports are true and Lord Carter’s off to the private sector as soon as Digital Britain’s PDF is posted, he’s not going to be leaving with an angry mob in hot pursuit.
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0 responses to “Digital Britain: what you need to know, and what it means”
While waiting for something to finish installing, I had a glance at the Daily Mirror. It had a front page headline saying that there was “Fury” about the 50p tax – details on Page 8 and 9. Funnily enough, other than the phrase “is set to anger the taxpayers” there was no indication of any such fury.
If the government asked would I like to contribute £6 a eyar to ensuring there was decent countrywide coverage, I’d be up for it. Even as a 17% bump in my bill it seems ok.
The problem is the government won’t be asking. I wouldn’t have any problems with taxation, BBC licence fee etc, if it were just a matter of the government asking. Unfortunately though, like the Mafia, the government prefers to make offers you can’t refuse. It’s only a contribution if you can tell them to sod off. Otherwise it’s legalised extortion.