UK unions sign up with Hollywood, Big Music
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Some British trades unions have joined entertainment cartel vested interests in a bid to force the UK government into taking on the role of a taxpayer funded corporate copyright enforcement agency.
Yesterday French president Nicolas Sarkozy embarked on the latest of his many unsuccessful attempts to impose Hollywood- and Big Music-inspired Three Strikes anti-P2P, anti-file sharing legislation on the citizens of France.
Under it, “ISP customers alleged to be sharing with each other online will receive two warnings to stop and if they don`t, they`ll have their accounts cut off,” said p2pnet.
Now, “As trade union delegates gather in Liverpool this week, among the issues being debated is the trade union response to illegal P2P filesharing of film, music and other creative content,” says Christine Payne (right), chairwoman of the Creative Coalition Campaign and General Secretary of Equity in a letter to The Telegraph.
And she wants ISPs to act a copyright cops in the new UK government Copyright enforcement agency.
“Internet service providers hold the key to creating the step change necessary to tackle illegal filesharing,” she says, going on »»»
It is the ISPs who have the direct relationship with customers, and all the evidence suggests that where a system is put in place for dealing with offenders, rates of piracy will fall dramatically. For the vast majority, simply drawing attention to the illegality of their actions would be sufficient to correct behaviours. This should be backed by further action in respect of those who do not change their behaviour.
Clearly, informing the public about the impact of piracy is a key part of getting people to see the bigger picture. But the rate at which jobs are being undermined by this issue is too urgent for ISPs not to play their role. Just as they need new television, film and music to fuel engagement with the internet, so they should live up to their responsibility to those who work in the production of the content.
It is for that very reason that my trade union and others have joined forces with the creative industries, under the banner of the Creative Coalition Campaign, to speak with one voice in support of obliging ISPs to take technical measures against persistent illegal peer-to-peer filesharers. This could include a reduction in bandwidth or even temporary suspension — albeit a very last resort.
The post attracts a number of comments, none of which support Payne or her rant.
Asks one, “I wonder if all the “Clamp-Down” proposers have any real idea of the sheer volume and variey of ‘file sharing’ going on throughout the entire ‘Interne’? ” – continuing »»»
The Internet itself was originally devised in a manner that would prevent overbearing ‘authorities’ from censoring or even eliminating much of the content of the system — it is actually a very pro-democratic system despite all officialdoms feeble attempts to ‘control’ it.
It is a simple fact, that something ‘deleted’ in one country simply becomes replaced from a part of the world not under the thumb of the initial ‘censor’ – even the great Google and Yahoo! know the impossibility of worldwidecontrol.
Sony found to its embarrassment and financial loss, that devious attempts to prevent copying, or even the use of purchased material on other than Sony equipment, backfired horrendously ( Remember the “Root-Kits” fiasco ? )
Even if you were to be able to “kill-off” the english language versions of ‘file-sharers’, you would still find all the German, French, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese and many others, would simply flow into the temporary ‘vacuum’ created by the Censor !
It’s the way it was designed – its far too late to change the basics now – “Compulsory Internet Esperanto” anybody ? – thought not !
Face it — governments don’t give a damn about artistes ‘losing’ some of their imagined incomes — governments DO care absolutely about TAX REVENUES not being maximised on everything — even illusional ‘earnings’.
At the end of the day, the entire malarky is about CONTROL and TAX – nothing else !
“Oderint dum metuant !”
( Let them hate, provided they fear ! )
In the ‘coalition’ are:
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades’ Union Congress; Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, joint general secretaries, Amicus/Unite; Christine Payne, general secretary, equity and director general of the Federation of Entertainment Unions; John Smith, general secretary, Musicians’ Union; Gerry Morrissey, general secretary, Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union; Benjamin King, chief executive, Publishers’ Association; Susie Winter, director general, Alliance Against IP Theft; John McVay, chief executive, Producers’ Association for Cinema and Television; Geoff Taylor, chief executive, British Phonographic Industry; Suzan Dormer, chief executive, Directors’ UK; Phil Clapp, chief executive, Cinema Exhibitors’ Association; Mark Batey, chief executive, Film Distributors’ Association; Lavinia Carey, director general, British Video Association; and Kieron Sharp, chief executive, Federation Against Copyright Theft.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
p2pnet – French 3 strikes law passes. 4th, or is it 5th, time?, September 15, 2009
The Telegraph – Internet service providers have the duty to stop illegal file-sharing costing jobs, September 15, 2009
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September 16th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Good job at digging up who is in the âcoalitionâ.
September 17th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Stupid Brits! UK unions are notorious for joining the pack based on propaganda! UK unions boycott Israel, a county that most computer users wouldn’t have laptops because of chip technology designed in that country among a huge list of medical, scientific and a whole host of technological innovation that have been first conceived in that tiny Jewish country. The UK, the land of protestants and virulent British/Scottish anti-Semitic Presbyterians; these people somehow believe that if the Jews just gave up more of its land to Muslims there would be peace!
And it’s the same backwards thinking that have these people believe that file-sharing of entertainment is horrendous and that new laws must be enacted to punish people! But in fact, by doing so they’re just dooming all the smaller artists who will never gain any significant following of new fans. File-sharing isn’t just being done to steal music from the mega artists; a greater majority of file-sharing going on is among consumers that are hungry for finding new music other than the top 40 or the latest teen pop star or established bands that make most of their money touring rather than through direct music sales (e.g. U2). Corporations are all short sighted, they look for talent, pump out what they can from them, drop them if their sales slump and more on to the next hot act. So for corporations to say they care about their artists and that’s why they want to put an end to file-sharing, they’re lying! They only care about protecting the profits from the artists that are making them money right now!
File-sharing helps out those artists who maybe just one or two good songs (or even one good selling album) and now they’re struggling. The music industry couldn’t care less about them but fans do and their loyal! The music industry isn’t going to spend money on an act that’s now struggling, they’ll spend their focus, money and marketing on the next hot group. But for those groups that are struggling and aren’t getting the help from their label anymore or who have even been dropped by their producers; a cheap way to test their new music is to release it on the Internet. The same goes for new artists, there’s an abundance of them, by banning file-sharing the music industry has cut off a method for unknown talent to market themselves and release some of their music to the public.
But as I say, in the UK, unions are notorious for cutting of their nose despite their face. Just as they’re willing to boycott Israel in thinking that by punishing those stubborn Jews, peace will come to the Middle East. The same goes for UK unions for endorsing laws banish file-sharing, thinking this will save the music industry. With boycotting Israel, the only people that really get hurt are themselves for depriving themselves of all the Israeli innovation that makes their lives better and even more interesting. And with banning file-sharing, the only people they are helping are the big record labels who are just concerned with pumping out their present money makers. Banning file-sharing will only make it harder for struggling artists to make a comeback and may in fact doom unknown talent who will be unable to mass market themselves to the public.
Way to go Brits! Brilliant!