p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- British culture Secretary Andy ‘Android’ Burnham (right), says the UK won’t follow France where, if president Nicolas Sakrozy has his way, Net access will be cut off for people said by the entertainment cartels to be ‘illegal’ file sharers.

Instead,  “technical restrictions” such as bandwidth throttling, popular with  major Canadian ISPs,  could be imposed.

Urged on by Denis Olivennes, who runs France’s largest consumer electronics retail chain, Sarkozy is doing his best to ride over the wishes of the country’s citizens.

Said p2pnet »»»

He`s close to honouring his commitment to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney to, punish digital pirates with the possible suspension of their Internet connections, a little more than a month after the same body had rejected the proposal in a surprise vote, as the New York Times put it recently.

And French entertainment industry minister Christine Albanel, foresees cutting 1,000 Internet connections every day and sending 13,000 warnings to first- or second-time offenders, says the Associated Press.

Under the ‘graduated response’ three strikes campaign Hollywood and the Big 4 labels are trying to have instituted around the world, anyone accused of repeated copyright infringement would be warned, then suspended and, finally, banned for 12 months.

Need for further — further? — UK regulation

“Don’t worry about him, the labour party will be gone by next June at the latest.”

That comes in a Reader’s Write to p2pnet’s last story, yesterday.

‘Him’ is  British MP Alan Johnson, secretary of state for health,” who says there’s a need for further — further? — regulation of the Net to ‘help tackle piracy‘  on behalf of Hollywood the Big 4 record labels.

But, worry, if current UK ministers are able to force a variation of the cartel-created ‘three strikes’-style legislation through before they’re thrown out.

In case you’ re wondering why a cabinet minister who’s supposed to be looking after health is concerning himself with online piracy, he’s had, “extensive dealings with the music industry during his stint as secretary of state for education and skills in 2006, and his ministerial post at the department of trade and industry in 1999,” according to Billboard.

Not at all incidentally he’s also, “tipped as a possible prime minister, should Gordon Brown vacate the position,” it says.

Which means the entertainment cartels will be very keen indeed to see him prosper.

And by an amazing coincidence, Burnham confirmed the British government is, “preparing legislation to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to apply technical measures on the most persistent file sharers,” says Music Ally, going on:

“The full announcement will be made in the Government`s Digital Britain report which will be published later this month.”

The news came when he addressed music industry representatives at a conference called Making Online Music Pay.

“Burnham revealed that there would be a new requirement placed upon ISPs to oblige them to notify identified file sharers,” says the story, continuing »»»

But, more significantly, he also confirmed that the Government is now in the process of drafting legislation to back up this obligation by giving reserve powers to the regulatory body Ofcom. These reserve powers would enable Ofcom to ensure that ISPs then applied technical measures against the most persistent file sharers. Burnham characterised the policy as a `graduated response`.

‘Quizzed’ by Geoff Taylor, who runs the Big 4’s  BPI (British Phonographic Industry), as to, “whether the trigger for this intervention might be a failure to reach the Government’s previously stated commitment to reduce file sharing in the UK by 70-80% within 2-3 years (one year of which has already passed), Burnham retorted ‘We do not and have not retreated in any way from that aim or timescale’,” says Music Ally, adding:

“It seems highly unlikely that the Government could achieve a reduction in file sharing of such a significant magnitude so the focus of attention is now squarely on just what technical measures the ISPs might be forced to apply. Burnham refused to speculate on exactly what kind of technical measures these would likely to be.

“Some form of bandwidth throttling has been one of the most widely discussed solutions but other solutions are also being considered. These range from much lighter interventions such as imposing some kind of enforced browser redirect away from an offending site such as Pirate Bay, to cutting net users off altogether. But Burnham confirmed the Government believed the latter to be too ‘draconian’.”

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

cut off – King Nicolas Sarkozy of France, May 23, 2009
help tackle piracy – UK MP calls for Net regulation, June 4, 2009
Billboard – Govt Minister Backs `Regulation` To Tackle Piracy, June 3, 2009
Music Ally – UK could force ISPs to apply technical measures on file sharers, June 4, 2009
honouring his commitment – Will France toe the corporate line?, May 13, 2009
New York Times -  France Approves Crackdown on Internet Piracy, May 12, 2009
Associated Press – New French law on Internet piracy meets skepticism, May 21, 2009