UK Regulator Says Digital Economy Act Only Applies To Big Wireline ISPs

from the small-ISPs-about-to-get-bigger dept

Tue, May 18th 2010 6:01pm — Mike Masnick

UK's telco regulator Ofcom has apparently decided that the Digital Economy Act's provisions on suspending accounts of those accused of file sharing will only apply to wireline ISPs who have 400,000+ customers. I would imagine that this might create a bit of a boom in business for smaller ISPs -- though, that could be self-defeating if too many customers switch and push any particular smaller ISP over that 400,000 mark...

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Filed Under: digital economy act, isps, uk, wireline

9 Comments

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Karl (profile), 18 May 2010 @ 6:50pm

Headlines
Ha, the headline at the Register is slightly different. And by "slightly different," I mean it reads like it was written by TAM:

Fleeing freetards could yet cause tiddler crackdown

The Register isn't owned by Rupert Murdoch, is it?

I also like how the entire article is apparently a registered trademark.
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Cynyr (profile), 18 May 2010 @ 6:53pm

hmm couldn't you upon reaching 350k customer split the company into 175k blocks, that share space?
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Vic, 18 May 2010 @ 7:08pm

Interesting...
Say there are two ISPs - one has 500K subscribers of which 10 are DEB breakers, another with 10K subscribers, all of whom (OK, let's say just 50%!) are downloading copyrighted material like crazy. Are they really going to let it slide?
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MadderMak (profile), 18 May 2010 @ 10:09pm

Hmmmm....

1 - Buy Wholesale pipe as Company A (bandwidth for 2-3 million subscribers or whatever)
2 - Build a toolkit for rapid deployment of a "small" ISP (B
3 - Deploy ISP Sell Bandwidth A->B
4 - Deploy ISP Sell Bandwidth A->B
5...
6 Profit?
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MadderMak (profile), 18 May 2010 @ 10:12pm

Re:
Sorry - further thought.. :)

7 Sell toolkit
8 Use profit to buy Hollywood Studio/Label
9 Break into pieces and sell to stimulate Indie production
10 Rinse and Repeat...
11 Use profits from sales to buy Lobby Groups
12 Feed Lobbyists to sharks
14...?
15 Have Indie studios make shark films?
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Rick, 18 May 2010 @ 11:20pm

Join ISP 1a
ISP 1a is a non DEA participating ISP who won't kick you offline for using the internet. We are capping our subscribers at 399k persons. After which we will direct you to our partner ISP named ISP 1b. ISP 1b is also a non DEA ISP with similar caps, but rest assured their partner, ISP 1c, is ready to serve you once their cap is met...

(rinse repeat)

Have a nice day.

(anyone else amused the initials for the act are DEA? lol)
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Brendan (profile), 18 May 2010 @ 11:39pm

Re: Join ISP 1a
"anyone else amused the initials for the act are DEA?"

I assume you mean in the sense of yet another another pointless, un-winnable war against something most people accept?
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Richard (profile), 19 May 2010 @ 2:14am

Re: Re: Join ISP 1a
With a bit of luck we might get it repealed by the new government - see:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8690882.stm

"Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is to pledge the "biggest shake-up of our democracy" in 178 years as he expands on plans for political reform.

The Tory-Lib Dem coalition backs plans for fixed-term parliaments, more elected peers and a referendum on changing the voting system.

Mr Clegg will pledge to restore faith in politics in a speech on Wednesday.

The Lib Dem leader is also expected to call on the public to nominate laws they think should be repealed. "
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Chargone (profile), 19 May 2010 @ 3:45am

Re: Re:
somewhere in there you need the step where you attach lasers to the sharks' heads.
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