UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered Ofcom to review a part of the Digital Economy Act 2010 which deals with website blocking.</p> <p>The DEA is a somewhat controversial attempt to address internet copyright infringement through the use of P2P (peer-to-peer) public file sharing. Measures proposed include strangulation (speed restrictions), disconnection of services, website blocking and warning notices issued to those customers whose ISPs appear on an illegal file sharing site. At one point, website blocking was removed from the Act, but it was re-inserted shortly before the May general election. At that point, there was no time left for debate, so the Act was rushed through.</p> <p>Now, with the Coalition government in control, the DEA is being looked at again; in this instance, for how it deals with website blocking. Key concerns include the fact that it does not work. ISPs cannot actually remove or block content that does not exist on their own networks. This truth was highlighted in the recent events in Egypt, where the government resorted to cutting off internet access completely in order to gain control over how information was disseminated.</p> <p>When asked about the review, Culture Secretary Hunt had this to say:</p> <p>"The Digital Economy Act seeks to protect our creative economy from online copyright infringement, which industry estimates costs them 400m a year. I have no problem with the principle of blocking access to websites used exclusively for facilitating illegal downloading of content. But it is not clear whether the site blocking provisions in the Act could work in practice so I have asked Ofcom to address this question. "</p> <p>In addition to site blocking, sections 3 and 18 of the DEA are also scheduled to go under review next month.