I read the Digital Britain report when it first came out (big download on my 2Meg “broadband”) and it seemed to have been written by someone who really doesn’t get the digital landscape present or future. The whole section about DAB is laughable. (If you are reading this Lord Carter, DAB is 80s technology, it is about time the BBC admitted that no one wants it. Forcinf people to use it will not work. People will simply use the internet for radio, or move to satellite or AM instead. DAB is dead.)

As a simple example. A CD came through the post two days ago for my teenage daughter. She listens to/watches indie bands on youtube. She liked what she heard and then bought their CD with paypal. That is the new model, it is not huge multi nationals like EMI or Apple iTunes. We need to localise and encourage small businesses, not prop-up creaking old behemoths.

For a great comment on iTunes have a look at the downloads page on Tom Robinson’s web site.

Digital Britain was an opportunity to get some new thinking, to think ahead about what the internet and new media could do and how we could benefit from it. But instead, it was a tired old attempt to package new media in last century economics.

Not to mention Feargal Sharkey could come banging down my door every time I download something on bit torrent (I don’t Feargal honestly, don’t hurt me).

But what most concerning about this Bill is the fact that the Secretary of State will have the ability to add to it, without consultation, without taking it back to Parliament. Mandy apparently has included this because the technologies change so often that it is not feasible to create a new Bill every time it is necessary, so this Bill allows for constant additions.