The Digital Economy Bill, a major legislation overhaul in the UK, could seriously affect anyone that is using the internet to share and download copyrighted content.
The bill obliges ISPs (internet Service Provid
ers) to notify copyright holders if they suspect copyright infringement. This will obviously involve monitoring a subscribers internet activity.
Virgin Media announced that they’ve already started testing a new tool on their cable networks, one which attempts to sort through the traffic and isolate illegal music downloads. It appears that many other UK ISPs are following suit.
Stephen Timms, the minister for Digital Britain, said that illegal file-sharing would definitely NOT be made a criminal offence (with a possible jail term.) But there are talks of heavy fines for those found and prosecuted. Figures of £50,000 were thrown around initially, but it seems now that this would only apply to those making commercial gain. It’s still not known what the likely or maximum penalty could be when a copyright holder brings a civil suit against an individual file-sharer.
Timms explained, “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.”
A BIS (Dept. for Business Innovation & Skills) spokesperson said that a copyright-holder would know of an infringement when they “…go to a peer-to-peer hosting site, discover that someone is offering one of their works, and therefore that person must have downloaded it…”
Timms also commented that the sending of notification letters to unlawful file-sharers “…will do the trick in reducing the scale for illegal activity…” The Government and Ofcom are looking for a minimum reduction of 70 percent in file-sharing over the first year, or they will look at introducing stronger measures.
Whilst we fully understand the need for copyright holders to be able to protect their intellectual property, and for other illegal activity to be monitored and controlled, there remains a question in our minds: Is this truly the start of ‘Big Brother’ watching us? Once the government forces ISPs to monitor traffic, could there be an abuse of the information gained? And what freedoms and privacy will ultimately be sacrificed?
Jason Kendall
