The UK Digital Economy Bill was unveiled on Friday and with it comes the promise of Internet disconnection if a user is found guilty of downloading lots of copyrighted material. Despite this not being a criminal offence, file-sharers would find their rights to have access to the Internet curtailed and civil proceedings heading their way.
Stephen Timms, The minister for Digital Britain, said:
“When a content rights holder identifies that somebody is doing things they shouldn’t be doing, their ISP will send them a letter telling them they shouldn’t be doing it. If that process proves to be insufficient, then we have the ability to put in place these technical measures. Among the technical measures, temporary account suspension is a possible temporary measure.”
The UK Pirate Party’s leader, Andrew Robinson, said (according to the Telegraph): “This is a major attack on free speech and human rights. All the benefits of filesharing have been ignored for the benefit of the record labels. Not only is it free advertising for the artist, but it is good for the cultural wealth of the country. No one is excluded from culture if it’s freely available.”
And this to me is the point, it is free culture, no-one should be denied that.
All this will do is force file-sharers to find other means of getting hold of content and drive them even further out of daylight under ground.
There will also be bandwidth capping and a daily download limit. Cracking.
I can’t help but feel that this won’t make it through parliament before the election however, and may indeed be swept under the carpet by the Tories should they come to power.
What the government want to do is to empower people and give them a public service, making broadband Internet a utility in the same vein as electricity or water. However, if I use too much electricity or water, do I get a letter telling me to stop and threatening disconnection? No.
What Labour could propose is a state run broadband provider with these terms, offering competitive rates against other Internet providers, and then see how many people sign up.
11 Comments
November 23, 2009 at 07:45
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November 23, 2009 at 08:17
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November 23, 2009 at 08:48
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November 23, 2009 at 10:23
Whilst I am also supportive of free sharing of files and the discovery of new material and content. I think there is a line. Such measures like this could be to stop the most prolific downloaders. Those who download to excess starve the creative industry of funds which damages future productions.
However, if you are paying for a music streaming service like Spotify, you should be able to access that anywhere, some networks halt this service to control bandwidth. There’s no easy solution, should Spotify subsidise the networks that deliver the content?
I think, the system does need a little control. As long as free speech is maintained.
November 23, 2009 at 16:25
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November 24, 2009 at 10:36
Nice post mate. To my mind this is a heavy handed approach that ignores the actual issue. Cutting off the odd illegal file sharer won’t miraculously resuce the major labels, nor indeed improve DVD sales.
The entertainment industries need to take responsibility for finding new revenue models. The operators can’t be expected to play the village policeman.
Where the governement does need to play a part is in helping industry to navigate through the spectrum issues. To use the utility argument it’s senseless that some parts of the country don’t have decent connection. It’s akin to relying on a well in the bottom of your garden. All stakeholders need to work together to makesure the public gets a decent service.
But regarding cutting pirates off – I’m also hoping the Tories will sweep this under the carpet.
November 24, 2009 at 11:09
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