The UK’s Department for Culture, Media, and Sport has tackled the first of those two items by preparing a report called “Digital Britain,” in which it takes a sprawling view of the nation’s prospects for remaining a force in the creation, distribution, and use of online content. Given such a broad mandate, the report is truly sprawling, covering topics as diverse as cellular spectrum allocation, education in media creation, and online privacy. Two of the most notable conclusions of the report, however, are its call for universal access to broadband by 2012, and the ability to take that access away should it be used for repeated copyright infringement.

To an extent, a lot of the report was presaged long before its release. Its analysis of the UK’s broadband market was clearly influenced by a previous analysis prepared by the government in 2008, and a draft of the report was circulated earlier this year. Nevertheless, the group writing the report received lots of feedback on the report in written form, via social networks, and a series of “unconferences.” The authors say that a lot of it wound up focused on the short-term economic problems, while the report was intended to focus on the long-term.

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