Enforcing age verification checks for online porn sites could be detrimental to smaller ISPs and significantly increase online fraud, the government has admitted. The measures, which are due to come into force in May, will require UK residents to prove they are 18 or over in order to get access to porn sites. The plans have …

The British government is to ban ticket touts from using automated software to snap up more tickets than allowed by event organisers. The new criminal offence will be brought forward under a provision in the Digital Economy Act. Those who break the law will face an unlimited fine. The plans are part of draft legislation and …

The UK government has offered more detail on how public authorities can pass around the data they hold on citizens – a mere five months after the Digital Economy Act passed into law. The final versions of the codes of practice, which are used to add some meat to the bones of the legislation, are now open for a six-week …

The Ministry of Fun says it isn't going to put the Digital Economy Act's anti-piracy measures into use – and will instead leave it to the creative industry's newer, kinder and gentler awareness campaign, Creative Content UK, to school digital pirates. Creative Content UK (CCUK) works by emailing copyright-infringing …

A UK government-backed scheme to curtail the widespread use of pirated copies of music, television and film has officially been launched and - as expected - comes without any harsh penalties being threatened against persistent offenders. Instead, millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has been chucked at an education programme …

Updated BT and TalkTalk today lost their final appeal against the UK government's measures to stamp out illegal file-sharing online. The telcos want certain sections of the Digital Economy Act repealed, and took their fight to Blighty's Court of Appeal after most of their arguments were tossed out by a High Court judge in April last …

The government should implement anti-piracy measures contained in the Digital Economy Act (DEA) "as quickly as possible", an independent panel appointed to review the future of the UK film industry has said. The Film Policy Review Panel was appointed by the government and has said that copyright infringement is contributing to …

MPs heard a spirited debate about digital rights this week – including the digital rights you might or might not have as an amateur creator. Big media companies would like the freedom to use artwork they find on the web without having to worry about lawsuits or negotiating market rates with creators. The web is awash with …

"Communications systems are inherently designed to deliver communication," stated Mita Mitra, BT's Internet Policy overseer, yesterday while debating one of the most controversial aspects of the 2010 Digital Economy Act: that BT and other ISPs should be responsible for blocking websites that infringe copyright. "It's a big …

Liberal Democrats yesterday passed a motion approving the party's radical new internet policy – including a technically-challenged proposal to make all internet traffic flow at one speed. That should make Skype calls interesting... The IT policy threatened legislation "to provide a level playing field – where traffic flows at …

In August the government said it wouldn't implement the Digital Economy Act's web-blocking powers. But it still thinks pirate websites hurt British business and wants something to make accessing them more more difficult, and to make sanctions against them less expensive. But what might all this look like? According to a leak …

The government has asked Ofcom to avoid giving alleged copyright infringers a general right of appeal against warning letters they may receive about their online activity in new regulations due out shortly, the telecoms regulator has said. Under the Digital Economy Act (DEA) Ofcom is tasked with writing new regulations to help …

Interview Lib Dems are appealing to the vital online pirate vote at this year's party conference, putting the membership on collision course with LibDem ministers in the coalition government. In a new IT policy paper called "Preparing The Ground", a team of party activists led by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert calls for the Digital Economy …

The rubber-stamping of Ian Hargreaves "IP Review" and other news yesterday represents a lobbying triumph for Google, and shows the creative industries they need to learn some lessons. Yesterday Ofcom pleased its political masters by repealing laws passed by Parliament. It may have repealed a dodgy law, but that's beside the …

Several decisions made today have far-reaching implications for every UK internet user. Telco quango Ofcom has effectively killed web-blocking reserve powers that were passed into law a year ago, by arguing that they probably won't work. The government also announced today that it is endorsing all the proposals made in Ian …

Vince Cable is expected to announce that the government will endorse all the recommendations of the Hargreaves Review into intellectual property, the "Google Review" – tomorrow. The FT adds that Cable will also announce that regulator Ofcom has said Clauses 17 and 18 of the Digital Economy Act, dealing with website blocking, are …

Analysis In a landmark test case, the High Court in the UK has ordered BT to block access to the pirate site Newzbin2. The site makes movies, music and applications available and describes itself as "the Google of Usenet". It's a stunning victory for six major Hollywood film studios who brought the case, with counsel from the Motion …

We first revealed a cunning plan to persuade search engines to "kitemark" serial pirate music websites back in April. Now the Performing Rights Society, which hatched the idea, has talked about it publicly for the first time. The PRS calls it "traffic lights", and the idea is that search engines flag known and persistent …