I caught up with Peter Hay on Friday afternoon for his piece on the Digital Economy Bill published in PR Week today. Here’s my comment in full.

I’m thoroughly depressed by the so-called Digital Economy Bill. It was rushed through Parliament, will throttle innovation and is a blatant bid to prop up knackered business models.

I counted less than 15 MPs in the chamber at times during the stages of the second reading. Backbenchers from all parties questioned why a bill of such importance was being driven through with such haste during the final hours of the current Parliament.

What started as a well intentioned piece of legislation has resulted in a series of laws that protect traditional industries but does nothing to encourage digital innovation. There will almost certainly be numerous unintended consequences for the PR industry many of which we haven’t even begun to consider.

The most dramatic impact of the bill is that it makes ISPs the custodians of copyright. Any business or individual that repeatedly sends or receives images, audio or video via a UK ISP for which they don’t have copyright authority risks having their account shut down. PR agencies will need to tighten up their copyright governance and ensure that employees aren’t falling foul of the law either personally or professionally.

My real concerns are for the future of UK social media programmes. The Digital Economy bill could make social media sites such as Facebook, Flickr or YouTube unworkable. Under the legislation site owners are responsible for upholding the copyright for material posted by users on their sites. Copyright owners can apply to a court to shut down serial-infringers.

For the fast growing digital PR industry that’s bad news.

Update: Ged Carroll has also posted further comment and analysis on the Digital Economy Bill that is worth checking out.