So, Steve's long awaited 'Digital Britain' report was published yesterday, and presented to the House Of Commons by the government's new culture blokey Ben Bradshaw, because of the loony system whereby Lords can be members of the government but aren't allowed to speak in the Commons, so can't actually be held personally accountable by our elected representatives (well, it's your constitution, people). Lord Stephen Carter, the report's author, had presumably been busy briefing new boy Bradshaw about his big document ever since the latter was moved into the culture minister job as part of Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.
The report, the first draft of which was published earlier this year, of course, had a wide ranging remit, covering both the expansion of digital media channels, and the issues facing content providers of all kinds in the digital age. Most reporting and comment on the document so far, however, has dwelled mainly on high speed broadband expansion, the future of the licence fee, and online piracy, and not wishing to be left out or anything, that's what I'm going to dwell on too. Starting, of course, with the bit that has particularly concerned the music business - illegal file-sharing and the internet service providers' role in stopping it.