DEA again...

FOR THE ATTENTION OF:

Anne Main MP
St Albans

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Dear Anne Main,

Before the recent general election I wrote to you regarding my concerns over the then Digital Economy Bill (now Digital Economy Act 2010). Along with many others I felt outraged by the way that this was pushed through during the "wash up" and by the poor attendance both during the readings and the vote; however I appreciate that at the time you were in opposition and had little chance of stopping the passage when the government were so set on pushing it through.

Now that the election is over and you are returned to parliament, this time in government rather than opposition, I would like to draw your attention to this topic again.

Andrew Cormack (chief regulatory advisor to JANET the Joint Academic Network) has posted analysis of the Ofcom draft obligations code on his blog:

http://webmedia.company.ja.net/edlabblogs/regulatory-developments/2010/05/31/ofcom-code-consultation-mixed-news/

While this code certainly doesn't justify many of the more outrageous claims made in the campaign against the Digital Economy Act, it does point to some fairly fundamental flaws that could stifle innovation and place connectivity of businesses at risk.

Sections 9 through 18 of the Digital Economy Act are controversial and did not have sufficient democratic scrutiny before the act was passed. I would like to request that you consider adding your signature to Early Day Motion 17 proposed by Julian Huppert MP calling for the repeal of the controversial sections of the act.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=40931

Thank you and congratulations on your re-election.

Yours sincerely,

Russell Heilling