p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Peter ‘Mandy’ Mandelson’s (right) efforts on behalf of Hollywood and Big Music continue to come unglued to the extent a prestigious UK firm is now wondering if they’ll ever become law.

The Big 4 record labels and Hollywood are simultaneously hammering their Three Strikes plan, “trying to have it adopted as law in countries such as Britain and France,” p2pnet said on Sunday, going on:

“Implemented, it would have administrations acting as industry copyright agents, and local ISPs  targetting their own customers on behalf of the cartels.”

European legislators have just  approved new rules which say users can be cut off only after a “prior, fair and impartial procedure” which gives them ‘the opportunity to state their case and respects the principles of presumption of innocence and the right to privacy’ has been completed.

‘ … wave of protest …’

ACTA is short for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Three Strikes plan  is an integral part of it.

But things have reached the stage where supporters, such as the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and certain British trades unions, are being tarred with the same brush as the entertainment industry, which created ACTA and, politicians such as Mandelson in the UK and Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who’ve been ‘persuaded’ to front the “graduated response” Three Strikes element.

Britain’s Digital Economy bill, in which the entertainment industry proposal is buried, “has sparked a wave of protest among consumers and rights groups,” says the BBC, going on:

“Soon after the bill began its journey through Parliament on 19 November, many expressed worries about parts of it.

“The bill suggests the use of technical measures to tackle illegal file-sharing that could involve suspending the accounts of persistent pirates.”

No technical solution

An FAC board director is artist-activist Billy Bragg who recently told p2pnet, “Our task now is to convince our colleagues that there is no technical solution,” also stressing, “this will take time.”

And the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) says it “strongly opposes” measures “introduced to tackle file-sharing,” says the BBC, quoting the organisation as stating, “Rather than focusing blindly on enforcement, the government should be asking rights holders to reform the licensing framework so that legal content can be distributed online to consumers in a way that they are clearly demanding.”

Meanwhile, the anti-P2P plans seem “hurriedly put together and not clearly thought-through”, the story has UK law firm Eversheds saying, warning the measures could have “unforeseen effects,” and adding:

“Critics … may have taken some comfort from the fact that the proposals have yet to wend their way through an already congested legislative timetable before the next election, meaning it is questionable whether they will ever become law.”

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

p2pnet – Hollywood touts ACTA, November 22, 2009
prior, fair and impartial – World`s first `net freedom provision`, November 24, 2009
Featured Artists Coalition – Open letter to Featured Artists` Coalition, November 16, 2009
British trades unions – UK unions sign up with Hollywood, Big Music,  September 16, 2009
BBC - Protests grow over digital bill, November 24, 2009
p2pnet – UK to adopt corporate 3 Strikes plan, october 28, 2009

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 1:30 pm 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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