p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- British ISPs will be ordered to cut ‘illegal filesharing’ by 70% within a year under new powers set to be given to the communications regulator Ofcom, the Digital Britain report, published today,” says The Guardian.

Digital Britain should, of course, read Digital Corporate Britain

And new powers? More properly, “new laws dictated by the corporate entertainment industry in the shape of the Big 4 record labels, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Hollywood, as in Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney”.

Working from ideas put forth by outgoing UK  communications minister and ex-PR hack Lord Carter, Britain will, “empower Ofcom to demand that ISPs collect data about alleged infringers of online rights – by downloading or uploading content without permission – and to notify them that their conduct is unlawful,” says the story, going on »»»

Persistent infringers could see their details passed on to rights-holders – principally music and film companies, but also games and software companies – which could sue them in court. In extreme cases, such offenders could also see bans on access to certain sites, and throttling of their internet speed and capacity.

This is fully in accordance with similar entertainment cartel policies currently being implemented in other countries such as France and New Zealand, whose politicians are working diligently on behalf of Hollywood and the Big 4 labels.

However, “There will first be a consultation before it becomes law, after which Ofcom will have responsibility for reducing piracy — working from a baseline that it will set at the moment the legislation becomes law,” says the story.

In other words, British bureaucrats, whose salaries are met by British taxpayers, will be coming up with laws so the cartels can sue Britons accused of the heinous ‘crime’ of copyright infringement.

The story has Orange saying it’ll be, “willing to maintain records of those ‘most frequently accused’ of copyright infringement to help rights-holders take legal action” but, “we would not agree to funding this process ourselves,” it says.

So as long as the cartels pay up, no worries for Orange in grassing out their own customers.

“Whilst we will assist rights holders in taking direct legal action against those accused of copyright infringement, we do not believe that Orange and the vast majority of our law-abiding customers should be required to subsidise rights-holders’ actions,” it says self-righteously.

Even the title of the 245-page report is a sick joke.

It’s called “Creative Industries in the Digital World”. But it’s hard to imagine anything less creative than the major studios or record labels.

“If implemented, if Ofcom does not within a year see the 70% reduction in filesharing, the government will require it to use its “backstop” powers to introduce further measures, including the blocking of particular sites and ‘protocols’ — methods of transferring data over the net — as well as capping the speed and capacity of offenders’ connections,” says The Guardian, ominously pointing out Ofcom is, “already the official regulator for ISPs”.

Declares Carter’s Sue ‘Em All Copyright Bible for the Entertainment Cartels, chapter 4 »»»

The government considers online piracy to be a serious offence. Unlawful downloading or uploading, whether via peer-to-peer sites or other means, is effectively a civil form of theft.

This is not something that we can condone, or to which we can fail to respond.

Copyright lawyer Robin Fry is quoted in the story as saying the UK government is “floundering for what to do in face of determined lobbying,” but »»»

Users are technically savvy and, even if challenged, many will simply set up further user accounts or sign up to overseas ISPs. None of the proposals in the Digital Britain report, nor our current copyright laws, will change what users are doing.

Requiring ISPs to send out warning letters is a hopeless distraction. It’s like asking bus companies to tell passengers not to be late for work, or making airlines responsible for all drug smuggling. It’s difficult to see what Ofcom can achieve above what UK rights-owners could have done but failed to do.

Adds The Guardian:

“Carter said the reaction of the industry and commentators to the interim report was that the rights agency was ‘a sledgehammer to crack a nut’ and that ‘the best way was for the industry to come together and agree a code of practice’.”

That being so, why was his report drawn up (at considerable cost to British taxpayers) in the first place?

Stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

The Guardian – Digital Britain: ISPs will have to cut filesharing by 70% under new proposals, June 16, 2009
ex-PR hack Lord Carter – Lord Carter on his way to pastures new, June 15, 2009
France – French ‘Three strikes’ HADOPI – back again?, June 16, 2009
New Zealand - New Zealand tries to revive 3 strikes law, June 15, 2009

---

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

---

Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

HOME

Viewed 1329 times