Well done Ofcom

I never thought I’d be writing a blog post with the headline ‘Well done Ofcom’ but here I am and it’s almost justified

Apparently the British media watchdog, with pressure from the government have been laying it on thick in the Eurozone in the hope of convincing countries to vote against the silly net video regulation element of the ‘Television Without Frontiers Directive‘.

The idea behind the directive was for the various media watchdogs across Europe to have responsibility for regulating clips posted to sites like YouTube, Google Video and peoples own websites.

However, the British government and Ofcom have turned around and said sod off to Europe and told them it would be silly.

Actually what they said was that the plan was unworkable and would stifle creativity and investment in new media across Europe. Which is spot on. Plus how the hell can you regulate the internet on a national basis.

If I post a clip to YouTube then it’s hosted in the US not the UK so technically it would come under US rules not EU or British.

But then I live in Jersey which is not part of the UK or the EU but the British government does have responsibility for foreign affairs. So does my clip come under Jersey law, British law or US law?

If we assume that the clip falls under the law of the place it’s hosted then if clips in the EU come under intense regulation and people are being rapped for posting clips that fall fowl of what would be OTT British regulation then they’ll just move them somewhere else.

In fact Ofcom realised this saying that because internet technology does not respect borders, users would simply turn instead to websites in the US and elsewhere.

The EU Council of Ministers gave in though after the UK government got a large number of countries on board.

They’ve basically said that they would limit government oversight to “TV-like” services on the web. Basically Ofcom will regulate TV style video downloads (BBC, Channel 4, ITV, SKY etc) but not clips on social sites like YouTube and Google Video.

This is interesting as, despite the fact that average users won’t be regulated online, major broadcasters will. So for the first time Ofcom will be regulating an aspect of the internet.

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