The Digital Economy Act explained

Radio, TV and books
Digital switchover is the process of changing from an analogue broadcasting system to a digital one. It means making Freeview, the UK’s free digital TV service, available everywhere in the UK and switching off the old analogue-broadcast signals.

The television switchover is already happening but the new act covers the switchover of radio signals from analogue to digital and allows the Government to set a date for its completion. It’s the first step on the road to switching, which is expected within five years.

The Digital Britain report, published in 2009, said it should be announced once 50 per cent of all radio listening is through digital channels, which is likely to be in 2013.

Currently Channel 4’s remit only covers programmes broadcast on its main television stations and requires it to make programmes of relevance to minorities (whether racial, sexual or based on disability or other factors). The new version commits the channel to making “innovative content” online as well as on broadcast television.

The Public Lending Right (PLR) is a scheme under which authors and illustrators (and other contributors to books) receive compensation from the government in exchange for their books being available on loan in public libraries.

Until now it has only applied to books printed on paper, but the new act extends it to cover audiobooks, recorded on CD, tape or computer file, and ebooks available as computer files. This should encourage more publishers to make books available in libraries in those formats.

The PLR said it encourages authors and others who have been involved in book production to sign up if their books are being lent in libraries (more information can be found at the PLR website).

Our verdict
While most of the media coverage of the Digital Economy Act has focused on the parts of it that deal with copyright infringement and the punishments for offenders, the act is much more wide ranging than just that.

It covers several areas and includes laws and regulations that will affect most of us in our daily lives, whether to do with computer games sales, the operation of Channel 4, digital radio transmissions or the lending of different book formats from libraries.

Some of the provisions will come into force soon while others, such as the PLR and game rating changes, for example, might take some time.

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