p2pnet news view Politics | P2P | Music:- “That this House notes with concern the Government’s proposals on file sharing which would allow rights holders to request internet service providers to disconnect for a period of time, or throttle, the internet connection of people who may be accused of copyright infringement via peer to peer networks; believes that disconnecting alleged offenders will be futile given that it is relatively easy for determined file-sharers to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection; acknowledges that illicit file-sharing only costs rights-holders money when people download infringing content in preference to buying it; further notes that identifying offenders using the Internet Protocol address of a specific machine may punish those who share a web connection; and calls on the Government to ensure that any citizen accused of illicit file-sharing is given the right to legal redress in a court of law before sanctions are imposed.”

Above is an early day motion just tabled in the UK parliament by Labour MP Tom Watson (right).

Signed by nine other MPs, it could end up being debated in the House of Commons, predicts ISP Review.

And it’s, “the next step in building opposition to sanctions in the legislature,” says UK artist and activist Billy Bragg in a p2pnet Reader’s Write, going on:

“If it can get enough signatures, we can then use it to convince skeptical artists that there is no technical solution.”

The major labels are, “very pissed of with us because we have embarrassed them in front of the govt,” he said in an ealier comment post.

“That and the fact that their spokesperson Lily Allen has been shot down in flames by you guys.”

His remarks came in a p2pnet story heralding the imminent arrival of a2f2a.com — artists-to-fans-to-artists, a new site currently being put together by him and p2pnet founder Jon Newton.

Bragg is on the board of Britain’s Featured Artists Coalition, a new group that’s publicly supporting a proposal from Lord Peter Mandelson to adopt a policy of, “broadband account suspension to be applied to the heaviest sharers, the now famous ‘egregious offenders’,” as Jeremy Silver summed it up at an FAC meeting.

Said an official FAC statement »»»

Our meeting … overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional.

The meeting was hurriedly called following UK singer LilyAllen’s widely publicised attack on P2P file sharing.

‘There’s no technical solution …’

But, “I accept that FAC need to deliver a better message that clearly states where we stand on file-sharing, but you have to understand that the vast majority of artists are still wedded to the record industry view of downloading as a threat,” said Billy Bragg in a Reader’s Write, going on »»»

There were over 60 artists in the room last week when we were discussing how to respond to the industry’s demand that the govt pass laws to suspend internet connections, only a dozen from the FAC. Despite evidence that technical sanctions will not work from several IT experts that we invited, the majority was clearly in favour of some kind of sanction. In order to try to stop disconnection, we opted for bandwidth squeezing as a compromise between all of our positions. Our task now is to convince our colleagues that there is no technical solution, but this will take time.

Until we can get a critical mass of artists to understand that the record industry doesn’t always act in our best interests and that we need to take the initiative on the issue of copyright and access, we have to keep engaged in discussion and education.

“Tom Watson is a good guy who I am in regular contact with,” says Billy, who’s currently on tour in Spain.

Definitely stay tuned.

1. Lily Allen disses P2P file sharing
2. Lily Allen piracy saga update
3. Lily Allen, copyright pirate
4. Billy Bragg solves the file sharing problem
5. Yeh, Billy Bragg, but what about the indies?
6. Billy Bragg to p2pnet …
7. We are the walrus. Or, thank you Lily Allen
8. ‘Just some stuff to think about, Billy’
9. Walruses and sock puppets
10. Dear music lovers …
11. Dear Dick Huey …
12. Artists to Fans to Artists: a2f2a
13. The last of the dinosaurs

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

ISP Review – MPs Oppose Disconnection of Suspected Illegal UK ISP P2P File Sharers, October 14, 2009
p2pnet – Artists to Fans to Artists: a2f2a, October 10, 2009
a2f2a.com - Music in the 21st century: framing the debate, October 12, 2009
widely publicised – Lily Allen piracy saga update, September 24, 2009
P2P file sharing – Lily Allen disses P2P file sharing, September 17, 2009

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 9:19 am and is filed under Music, P2P, Politics. 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.

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