p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Indie artist Indiana Gregg (right) became suddenly and instantly (in)famous when she had the temerity to launch a full frontal assault on The Pirate Bay.

Like TPB is HOLY! No one attacks them!

She and her husband, Ian Morrow, asked TPB to remove a .torrent linking to Gregg’s ‘Woman At Work’ album.

And they suffered the wrath of the net as a result.

That was more than a year ago and Indiana, still front and centre in the copyfight, recently decided she wasn’t content to accept the mainstream media reports of the UK government’s plans for its version of the Three Strikes and you’re Off The Net policy.

Anyone who “persistently” downloads ‘illegal’ content after being twice warned not to do it will be disconnected, business secretary Peter Mandelson said.

Print and electronic mainstream media consistently lay the plan on his doorstep, presenting it as a UK ‘initiative’. But it’s world wide and ISPs everywhere may be forced to snoop on their customers and cut them off if they’re found to have shared copyright-protected music online, said the IDG News Service in a story on the latest round of the secret ACTA talks which have just concluded in Korea.

Because ACTA and the Three Strikes plans go hand-in-hand.

“Promoted by America, Yes — but on behalf of the entertainment industry,” said p2pnet, going on the ‘initiative’ is “touted around the world as individual government plans is nothing but a part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to turn governments into copyright agencies  funded by local taxpayers, and ISPs into  copyright police, acting against their own customers.”

Mandelson is, then, doing no more than handling it  in Britain on behalf of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures.

What, specifically, does he have in mind?

When Indiana asked him, she received a reply from James Matthews of the BIS ministerial correspondence unit  which, among other things, shamelessly and blatantly promotes Virgin Media and Universal.

It says »»»

The Government wants as many people as possible to enjoy all the benefits that broadband internet can bring. New technology has changed the way people want to use and access media content, in some cases faster than products and services commercially on offer have developed. But we are also clear that the benefits of the internet must include economic benefits for our creative industries and artists. We therefore take extremely seriously the problem of illegal file sharing, and have been working closely with rights holders, media companies and internet firms to develop practical solutions to reduce and prevent this.

Whilst all parties would prefer a voluntary, rather than a regulatory solution, it is clear that such a commercial solution is very difficult to achieve.  We recognize that one problem is the need for a level playing field and therefore acknowledge the need for a regulatory baseline.  Last year we hed a consultation on possible legislative options to tackle file-sharing; this, submissions received and the Government’s response can be found at:  http://www.ber.go.uk/consultations/page47141.html

We set out how we pan to move forward on this in the Digital Britain Report published on 16 June, which identified the need to encourage new sources of content and increased levels of media literacy as well as how to tackle whose unlawfully sharing copyright material (chapter 4).  The report can be found at:

http://www.dcms.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

We propose to legislate to ensure that consumers whose broadband account has been identified in connection with alleged copyright infringement would be alerted by letter.  This would set out the legal position but also provide pointers for help and information on, for example, how to protect wireless networks properly, where to find legal sources and routes of appeal.  This letter would come from the Internet Service Providers (ISP) concerned, not a law firm.  This should help address many concerns about individuals being wrongly identified, not having the correct information or indeed feeling pressured by the threat of legal action.

For those individuals who choose to ignore the letter, they will receive a number of further warnings before they are ultimately addd to a list of those subscribers most frequently alleged to have breached copyright.  Rights holders will be able to use a court order to obtain the details of these individuals and then take targeted legal action as appropriate. This should ensure that individuals have ample opportunity to change their behaviour, take appropriate action to, for example, secure their wireless connection or indeed appeal.  It would also mean that only those who chose to ignore the warnings and who appeared to continue to infringe copyright on a large scale would face legal action.

As a final safeguard, this activity would be underpinned by a Code overseen by the independent regulator the Office of Communications (Ofcom).  A key issue the Code would have to cover is consumer protection- one of Ofcom’s prime roles.  However, we are breaking new ground in legislating to tackle this type of activity and while we are confident these measures will significantly reduce the level of unlawful file-sharing, we cannot be sure.  That is why we are also including the option to allow the introduction of technical measures if the notifications and legal action do not prove as effective as we expect.

We committed in the interim Digital Britain report to consult on the detail of the legislative proposals and this sonsultation was issued on 16 June.  Following this, concern was expressed at the length of time it would take to implement these measures- or indeed move to technical measures.  We therefore decided to modify these proposals and issued a statement on 25 August explaining our thinking. The consultation on these proposals closed on 29 September.  We are in the process of analyzing all the responses received and intend to issue a summary along with the Government’s top-level response in November.  I hope your constituent was able to contribute to the debate.

However, it is not possible to look at file-sharing in isolation.  There is also the need to ensure proper education of consumers, for new attractive legal sources of content as well as a system of notifications; these will play a significant part in that education role.  It is vital that there are attractive legal offers available so that unlawful behaviour is no longer the default” for many seeking content online.  That is why we welcomed the recent announcement by Virgin Media and Universal on the launchof a subscription download model, allied with Virgin taking anti-piracy measures on its network.  This is the type of agreement which will play a critical role in moving the majority of people away from piracy.

Our ambition is to see the UK as the leading major economy for innovation, investment and quality in the digital and communications industries.  The Digital Britain Report aims to secure four key conditions, namely: open markets; empowered and informed consumers and citizens; universal access to public service content; and a responsive regulatory framework.  One work-stream will explore business models for content deveopment in the digital age and the impact of new media on the content market.  In addition, the UK Intellectual Property Office will take forward work to deliver a digital copyright framework which supports creativity, investment and job creation.

Definitely stay tuned.

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

wrath of the net – Indiana Gregg versus The Pirate Bay, July 5, 2008
IDG News Service – Trade Talks Hone in on Internet Abuse and ISP Liability, November 3, 2009
p2pnet – Three strikes world-wide, and a global DMCA, November 4, 2009

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 10:47 am and is filed under P2P, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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