Just had a nicely alarmist conversation about the controversial King Henry VIII clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill. That’s the one which, if passed, would allow ministers to make changes to copyright law with no further votes in parliament. It’s a boring sort of clause on the face of it, but it could be used in any number of dangerous ways.
The fear, in this case, is that the BPI (the music industry trade body) wants to use it to force ISPs to block access to “pirate websites”. Type the URL to ‘freemusic.com’ (say) and you’ll get a blank space if the ban is introduced.
If true, that sounds like a step too far. Blocking pedophile sites (as already happens today) is one thing, but to ban websites for simply on the grounds of copyright infringement is a step too far.
When the Chinese censor content, we in the West like to complain. Yet, such high mindedness on our part, may be misplaced. Is it so important to protect a few well paid musicians and record industry executives, by banning websites that may contribute to peer to peer file-sharing?
Surely it is up to the music business to work with the internet providers to identify the pirates. Then action can be taken against infringers directly. Better that than introduce Communist-style censorship by the back door.
Adam
Always handy I find to get a few facts right on this one
- the lists you provide don’t identify ‘pirates’ they identify the account holders whose connections have been used for illegal filesharing. Last time I noticed a broadband connection cannot wield a cutlass
- if music labels want ISPs help in sending notifications I would suggest you start off with the standard business practice of paying for what you want
- if you think you have a good case against an individual then use the courts to pursue you case which protects against prosecuting innocent people rather than trying to get ISPs to do your dirty work for you
Andrew
“Surely it is up to the music business to work with the internet providers to identify the pirates. Then action can be taken against infringers directly. Better that than introduce Communist-style censorship by the back door.”
But this is just the thing, Dan – we do indeed identify the “pirates”, all the time. We send the big ISPs notifications containing evidence of thousands of their customers filesharing copyrighted material literally every few weeks or so, and they simply ignore them and pretend it isn’t happening. In the last year, none of the big ISPs have taken any action whatsoever as a result of any of these notifications.
Every big ISP has T&Cs that state they can terminate the broadband contract and service for copyright infringement, so they ALREADY HAVE the cover they need to take action.
Adam Liversage
BPI