Last week UK business secretary Vince Cable confirmed that the website blocking provisions put in place under the country's controversial Digital Economy Act would be abandoned. Communications regulator OFCOM had been asked to conduct a review to see if the system could work. Ultimately it found that the plans were unworkable.

Parts of the report produced by OFCOM were censored by the UK government but those restrictions, ironically, were easily bypassed. The net result is that the uncensored report provides a pretty decent guide on how Internet users are expected to bypass future website blocks and how 'pirate' site operators will attempt to help them.

What makes the assessment of OFCOM particularly interesting is that it shows how ineffective the anti-piracy plans of the US government are. According to the report, many of the censorship measures that are included in the PROTECT IP Act won't be as effective as advertised.

"Circumvention of a block is technically a relatively trivial matter irrespective of which of the techniques used. Knowledge of how site operators and end users can work around blocks is widely distributed and easily accessible on the internet."

"It is not technically challenging and does not require a particularly high level of skill or expertise."