So what else did 'Digital Britain' say outside the file-sharing domain? Well, the big news, albeit expected, was the proposal that a portion of the licence fee should be taken off the BBC and given to commercial broadcasters with public service remits.
The idea seems to be that the money currently put aside by the Beeb each year to help fund the switchover to digital would continue to be set aside even once switchover is completed, and that that money, about £130 million a year, might be made available to commercial broadcasters like ITV and Channel 4 to fund some of their public service programmes, in ITV's case that would include regional news and kids programmes.
The BBC, of course, hate the idea of losing their monopoly over the licence fee, and bosses there thought they'd successfully derailed such proposals earlier this year when Channel 4's original suggestion that it should get a cut of licence fee cash was seemingly rejected by ministers. But the 'Digital Britain' report, while vague and a bit non-committal on this issue, stressed that the Corporation didn't have any automatic right to all licence fee money, and told BBC bosses that they needed to become "public service partners" with commercial media organisations.
The BBC claim that diverting licence fee money to other media organisations would "damage BBC output", which is nonsense, it might force them to reduce overall output, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. And, of course, the Corporation remains chronically overstaffed in an era when everyone else in the media is streamlining like mad. Nevertheless, BBC Trust top man Michael Lyons has formally stressed his objections to the licence fee sharing plans, and has vowed to fight any such proposals should they be formally put on the table.
Elsewhere with regards public service broadcasting issues, Carter said previously discussed proposals of a merger between the two state owned commercial media firms - Channel 4 and the Beeb's commercial bit BBC Worldwide - would not be forced by government, but that ministers would support such a merger should the two parties want it, and would be willing to help "facilitate" such a deal.
As previously reported, a combined C4 BBC Worldwide has been much discussed since the first draft of 'Digital Britain', the Beeb reluctantly considering the proposal because it's more palatable to them than C4 getting a cut of the licence fee. Such a merger might be preceded by Channel 4 buying Virgin Media out of the UKTV network, which is half owned by BBC Worldwide, and which would see the two companies formally partnering on a TV enterprise.