Move to criminalise file sharing Britons
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Seven million Britain’s could be turned into criminals if government anti-P2P, anti-file sharing plans are put into practice.
“Lord Mandelson (right), the Business Secretary, is said to be persuaded by the argument for tough laws to curb illegal file-sharing after an intensive lobbying campaign by influential people in the music and film industry,” says the Independent.
“Persuaded” by, “influential people in the music and film industry?”
How could vested Hollywood and Big 4 music cartel purely commercial interests possibly carry any weight in a government elected by the people, one wonders?
“But Tom Watson, the former minister for digital engagement, today criticises the proposed crackdown as extreme and calls for a more measured approach that would target those who uploaded illegal content, rather than the millions who downloaded the files,” says the story.
However, for the first time, Britain has a political party set up specifically to answer people’s concerns on issues such as filesharing.
The UK Pirate Party was launched officially last week and on its blog, “So, Lord Mandelson comes back from his holiday and decides to pay for it by quickly adding a bit to the Queens Speech that will allow his mates to increase their vast fortunes,” says rancidpunk, continuing »»»
Lets forget the fact that this should all be debated in the Digital Britain debate in parliament later this year and look at what positives might come from this.
Since nobody in power is willing to define exactly how evidence will be gathered I have to say that it would be of great help if the government would criminalise the offence and then the evidence would have to be gathered in a proper manner against each individual.
This is important because the media industry would like to be able to circumvent the judicial process completely and use the flimsiest evidence obtained by “sub contractors” (IP harvesters) as proof and force ISP’s to act on it, hence saving themselves from the problem of having to individually prosecute their own best customers in a civil case or using the police to investigate a crime.
The burden of proof in a criminal case would have to be beyond reasonable doubt instead of the balance of probability required for a civil case, so while an IP address could be accepted by a technologically unaware judge as proof of guilt in a civil case, there would have to be a proper trail of evidence gathered by the police through obtaining a warrant to monitor an individuals internet use if there is a valid reason for suspecting a crime is being committed.
I am a bit cynical perhaps, but I’m sure the government will find a method of justifying not using the courts to decide guilt on this particular crime. Can you imagine the outcry if a terrorist suspect was convicted on evidence obtained by a commercial company using highly intrusive and undisclosed spying methods, the suspect would walk free because the evidence was inadmissible and would have a nice big wad of cash to compensate him or her for such a huge breach of his human rights.
“Maybe it’s because there aren’t large sums of money to be made from going after terrorists that our ignoble leaders haven’t found a way to bypass the individual right to trial that seems to apply to all but filesharers,” the post adds.
Stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi Independent – The Net closes in on internet piracy, August 16, 2009
blog – Why I’m Happy If They Criminalise It, August 16, 2009
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August 17th, 2009 at 10:02 am
You know that for some subjects there are such things as ‘essential reading lists’? Well, how about for the subject of liberty vs monopoly we have an essential movie list?
The movies should highlight the danger and disastrous consequences of pursuing societal and commercial interests (against terrorism, witchcraft, Semitism, communism, paedophilia, piracy, etc.) at the expense of natural rights (life, privacy, truth, liberty).
Here’s a starter:
1984
Brazil
V for Vendetta
Good Night, and Good Luck
There are probably so many they can be categorised and sub-categorised.
What we fail to learn from history is that we are doomed to repeat it.
August 17th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit
and it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit the privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo
turning beauty to filth and greed…
August 18th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Hey, those lyrics are copyrighted!