ISPs ‘outraged’ over new copyright threat
p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- “Lib Dem peers are seeking to amend the Digital Economy Bill to allow site blocking for copyright infringement”, the Open Rights Group’s Jim Killock (right) posted on Tuesday, going on:
“This could lead to unwanted blocking of sites accused of copyright infringement, including sites like Youtube, and a massive chilling effect as any site with user generated content could easily fall foul of provisions like this.”
Now ISPA (Internet Service Providers Association) says it’s “outraged” by the House of Lords decision to approve Amendment 120A to the UK Digital Economy Bill which would allow the High Court to grant an injunction calling for ISPs to block sites with a “substantial proportion” of content alleged to infringe copyrights.
“This would open the door to a massive imbalance of power in favour of large copyright holding companies,” Killock warns in the Telegraph.
Individuals and small businesses “would be open to massive ‘copyright attacks’ that could shut them down, just by the threat of action”, he states.
“Whilst we appreciate the concern of opposition front benches to clause 17, we regret that this amendment has been hastily constructed and rushed through at report stage without due consideration of the implications or consultation with the interested parties that would be affected” says ISPA, continuing >>>
In the words of Shadow Secretary of State for Culture Jeremy Hunt “trying to rush through controversial powers at the tail end of a Parliament is simply no way to make law and not something we will be supporting”.
The many associated legal, technical and practical issues have simply not been debated in nearly enough depth. For a policy of such gravity, this is negligent.
Lord Clement-Jones correctly noted in proposing his amendment that the courts in fact already have the power under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act to grant an injunction requiring ISPs to block access to sites that contain unlawful copyright content. ISPA would agree that 97A strikes an appropriate balance between the interests of different parties and leaves the court free to consider each claim on its merits and independently of other factors. Amendment 120A, however, abandons this balance, introduces a bias in favour of one party (rightsowners) and limits the court’s discretion to judge each case on its merits.
ISPA is particularly disappointed that the Lords supporting this amendment drew parallels with the model of network-level blocking administered by the Internet Watch Foundation. The suggestion that a framework developed to fight against the distribution of criminal images of child sexual abuse is appropriate to tackle allegations of civil copyright infringement is incomprehensible.
This amendment is misjudged and disproportionate and this Bill is a wholly inappropriate place to introduce this debate. Other countries have explored similar policy options but surfaced these concerns and focused their policy debate accordingly on the most egregious content offences in the cases where the policy has progressed at all. ISPA has been a long term advocate against any form of network level blocking, as it is only effective in reducing inadvertent access, and believes the Peers behind this amendment should consider the available research, which supports this view.
ISPA members are “extremely concerned that the full implications of the amendment have not been understood and that the reasoning behind the amendment is wholly misguided”, says ISPA secretary-general Nicholas Lansman, adding:
“We would therefore urge the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to urgently reconsider their position.”
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Open Rights Group – Lib Dems seek web blocking: ask them to stop, March 2, 2010
ISPA – ISPA Outraged by Amendment on Network Level Blocking to Digital Economy Bill, March 3, 2010
Telegraph – YouTube ‘under threat’ from Digital Economy Bill changes, March 4, 2010
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March 4th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
When you consider there have been existing cases of copyright infringement by the recording industry– not to mention fraudulent studio allegations preventing artists from freely distributing their own material– under existing laws, going ahead with this is sheer madness.
Doesn’t the UK government realize that their Digital Economy Bill will disadvantage U.K. intellectual property creators by reducing their ability to compete independently? This will be very bad for the arts.
March 4th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
@ Laurel:
UK government? What UK government?
Oh wait — you mean the entertainment industry general factotums.
Cheers!
March 4th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Don’t the UK’s citizens read the news? If they do, why are they not organizing something to say “Hey, we pay your damn salaries and for all this shite, do what you are damn well told!” If enough Brits stand up, ideally half the country, you’d see the government do what they are supposed to do, work FOR the PEOPLE!
That applies to any country! If enough stand up, change will come! If people are too distracted over celebrity horror stories of how they can’t make ends meat and they worry about the indie (which, no one with half a brain making decisions realizes the decisions are actually what hurt the indies, not “piracy”), or what’s going on with Simon Cowell, is he leaving/staying? Etc… Then NOTHING will change!
March 4th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
It’s because it’s not covered by many newspapers in the UK, presumably because the net is also rendering them obsolete and damaging their profits.
The sad fact is that traditional media coverage of this here has been next to nothing. If it weren’t for the web, I wouldn’t know anything about it either.
There’s still a lot of people in the UK who don’t know the Internet from their elbow.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
“…grant an injunction calling for ISPs to block sites with a ’substantial proportion’ of content alleged to infringe copyrights.”
This clause obviously has dangerous implications for torrent trackers and torrent index sites, which are already being labelled this way by spin doctors.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
“Doesn’t the UK government realize that their Digital Economy Bill will disadvantage U.K. intellectual property creators by reducing their ability to compete independently? This will be very bad for the arts.”
They either realize or they don’t, but it does not really matter. These decision-makers are enemies of the nation.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
It’s a nice sentiment robert, but it’s gotten too far for that to work.
It’s at the point now where politicians don’t have to care if anyone knows about their
corruption. Whether or not they get voted out, they will still be wealthy, and continue to
be wealthy in the private sector, hired by the corporations that paid them for legislation in
their favor. Corruption in many countries is almost baldfaced. In Canada, the US, the UK,
it doesn’t matter. It’s the same. As long as they walk away from the table wealthy they
don’t CARE what we think.
It’s sad, and will end badly in the not too distant future.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:44 am
I think this low-down in the agenda for most Brits.
The problem is to a non tech-savvy person the issues are really hard to explain, and you can’t sum it up in a 140-letter tweet.
Example, the “Dont Disconnect Us” site has been running since September last year and got over 30,000 signatures.
That seems impressive until you realise the “Save BBC 6 Music” campaign got 90,000 signatures in 3 days.
March 6th, 2010 at 8:59 am
So okay, then its up to us to start spreading awareness when and wherever an opportunity arises. Create opportunity for it to arise. Those of us with the knowledge have a greater responsibility (and my own new spin on that word “response – ability”) to act on behalf of those without it. The internet presents the first time in history for us as people to communicate openly and more or less directly with one another even on opposite sides of the globe without the interference of gatekeepers which alter the message to suit their needs. I believe that the net is the greatest tool to the redistribution of power that we have ever seen. Being armed with knowledge is a far greater power that is stronger than any weapon of fear, which is exactly why “they” want to lock it down and secure it.
Its time to find our voices folks – just like the who’s down in whoville floating on the speck of dust that only Horton could hear.