A “draft consultation Green Paper” to be released by the UK Government proposes a three strikes and you’re out law to combat illegal downloads.
Under the proposal, UK internet users will be monitored by their ISP’s for illegal downloads, and those caught will receive an e-mail warning in the first instance, internet suspension the second time, and then termination of their contract on the third strike. A similar law was proposed in France back in November 2007.
According to the BBC quoting The Times, broadband firms which failed to enforce the rules could be prosecuted, and the details of customers suspected of making illegal downloads would be made available to the courts.
The proposal faces several serious hurdles, such as attributing blame where internet access is shared, and then determining what is illegal content. Although BitTorrent traffic is primarily pirated material, there is also increasing amounts of legal material as well. Even this week a German record company offered its entire music catalog via Pirate Bay, so even using and accessing material from the most famed pirate site of them all may not actually constitute downloading illegal material.
The proposal unsurprisingly comes from the Music and Record industry, and although not yet law is being promoted by the UK Government as part of a “comprehensive plan to bolster the UK’s creative industries,” so looks like it will be implemented at some time in the future. [Techcrunch UK has more].
Just another proposal that’s not enforcible unless they forbid encrypted connections etc.
what about goverment bringing legislation for wallet ripper , who for their unique content are charging as much as they can?
this will be hard as hell to prove and I can’t see the ISP’s going for it, how will they know what files are illeagal? how will they deal wth streaming flash and divx content?
Totally unworkable. Is the Government going to maintain a list of banned individuals which every ISP will have to check before they’re allowed to connect anyone? Just another dumb idea from a Government that proves over and over again how little they understand IT.
No such problems for Indians. Indians can still download full movies only from http://moviemazic.com. We are completely legal site. Any piracy issues you find feel free to sue google.
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Thanks
Maya
Even if they do manage to enforce this, where do consumers go to get their legal movie downloads? There’s no real, easy alternative…
Agree with Darren Stuart.
Darren
here in lies the problem, the logistics of checking and verifying every download is horrendous, but that’s never stopped a dumb idea becoming law before.
Comprehensive plan to bolster the UK’s creative industries seems to be the issue here.
Solutions should comes from insiders and not Politics.
I am on the same trend as Armand Rousso on the fact it should come from insiders…
Just another example of the current UK government trying to extend the surveillance society that we are currently living in here.
No doubt that whoever the politicians are that tabled this on behalf of the music industry they will be lining their own grubby little pockets somehow.
The music industry is grabbing at straws, their business model has been completely disrupted and they are understandably running scared and are trying anything and everything to cling to their old business model. They are just trying to protect the massive profits that they have made in the past.
The music and film industry needs to concentrate on revamping their business model, innovate and offer the consumer something of real value that they are willing to pay for rather than trying to stick a finger in a burst dam.
It might become law, but they would not be able to enforce it. Like all prohibition laws, it’s main purpose is to scare and when people find ways to circumvent it the effect will be zero (except for the bureaucracy needed to administer the law, the politicians gathering “free points”… etc. You know the usual stuff)
yeah you guy are right! the rule will not work cause they doesn’t understand what is internet! how do they measure bittorrent or p2p file is illegal? can i buy a mp3 and then download using bittorrent or p2p? lol
It is good to know that the UK government is at least so stupid as the spanish & french government.
This will go along fine up until the point that various backbenchers realise that they will probably loose more votes as their constituents are booted off the internet than they will get supporting the bill.
It also makes a mockery of the UK Governments plan to use broadband access to boost jobs.
@Duncan maybe they have been speaking to china :p
Unfortunately, at least here in France and as part of nearly the same proposal, companies will not have to prove (as in providing evidence to a judge) that the people are faulty, they will directly address the internet service providers with their claims. The idea is that the strikes wil be applicable to SUSPECTED people.
What the companies expect is that these people -small numbers at first, as with the RIAA in the US- will be frightened enough that they cease downloading (if they ever did), and though this will be applied to a limited number of people, that it is publicized enough to stop everyone from downloading copyrighted materials.
Ths is my current understanding of the proposal here in France, while the details are still discussed and will include an “independant authority” somewhere in the process.
More like The UK has been speaking to Australia who also want to censor and filter information thats sent over the internet .
http://www.efa....-feed-proposal/
Im sure Duncan Knows all about that stupid proposed law .
If this ever becomes law I suspect the number of people using encryption or anonymous proxies to increase. And given the competition in Bit Torrent clients I suspect it will become easier to switch these on (maybe even on by default).
Yet again technology will find an effective way to route around clumsy laws.
I don’t know how it works in the UK but in France the owner of the rights have now the right to collect the Ip adresses of illegal downloaders and then, the ISP have to give them the names of the guys behind the IP. So basically, illegal download is not forgiven only illegal download of stuff wich someone can prove they own the rights (is this last sentence real english ??
…
What i mean is that big companies will probably look for people who download the top 10 most downloaded stuff…. Basically it’s gonna be harder downloading “Transformers”…. probably not “Citizen Kane”
Also i’ve been using wuala for some time now, and i’m not sure it’s possible to easily track people sharing copyrighted stuff on wuala…. so maybe the future is here
@ Leaving The Day Job: it’s not that complcated in fact, if you blacklist someone with his name, adress and bank account it should work
Most of the guys who come up with these laws/proposals are soo far from relaity its just unbelieveable..! I’ll bet my right arm most have never used a PC!!
Have they not learnt anything from previous piracy cases..? The music industry learnt the hard way!!
And how to control the opened wifi networks? The ignorant politicians in all countries are under the presure of the same lobbies.
You may expect intentional “poison pills” as a countermeasure, where copyrighted songs are hidden in web pages and downloaded when the page loads – causing hundreds of thousands of people to unknowingly break the law. Pod casts innocuously labeled “Best recipe for cupcakes” are MP3s.
They intend to revoke internet access to half the population of Britain?
“This is bullocks!”
This is laughable anybody with a gram of network savvy will be around this in 10mins, Ip masking, spoofing, proxies etc. spring to mind, then theres the coders that will start to write the programs to deflect around the problem, What one man can make another can undo.
Also a large majority of people dont encrypt their wireless network, and wep encryption is easy to get around there is many a tutorial on the web about that.
The only problem here is the price structure why should the likes of Madonna become a billionaire for doing as much work as anybody else, the music and film industry had it too good for too long, power to the peerple. LOL
Pity they don’t do this count for robbers, muggers and rapists first.
@22
I’ll bet my right arm most have never used a PC!!
LOL
i thought governments should have been busy fighting global warming etc, yet no in the UK they have the time to get up to all sorts of sleaze while in the mean time peddling claptrap for corporations who have a history of dubious dealings.
I’m starting a new political party (hidden behind a proxy sever) in the UK called the ‘pirating-party.com’ vote for me in the coming elections…..
Once again?
Nothing will happen again.Illegal Downloads can’t be stopped sir.If it happens then boy, Uk users will have a boring internet.
Unfortunately I didn’t check techcrunch earlier today- leaving the delivery of this news the hands of my flat mate.
If the UK are proposing these measures.. and feel that it is possible to enforce.. then why do so many other internet crimes go on within the UK?
I hate to do it and use the word… but every now and then a story crops up regarding Paedophiles within the UK managing to get access to sites which hosts this illegal content. Why oh why.. is the government flexing their “Big Brother” muscle on illegal downloading and not focussing this on the greater good? Not just paedophiles, but Internet fraud also!
Now I don’t know my exact stats on this… but i’m pretttty confident Internet Fraud within the UK costs far greater than copyright infringement. As I say I could be completely wrong, but as a British citizen I can say I would far prefer hearing Fraudsters and paedophiles are being “banned”, and not someone sat at their pc watching the latest ‘pirated’ movie while drinking some OJ.
But as most folk have already said- I look forward to when I’m sat on my flying pig and reading the paper of users being caught with this new proposed law.
Downie.
//end rant.
This is sad. Why can’t all these so-called victims of piracy just learn that by working against the world of internet they are only making themselves bigger targets? A compromise is needed, similar to projects such as GNU and other freeware initiatives.
Why are tax payers paying the government to protect a dying business model? How many people have to go to jail before the chimps evolve?
Also, this is a great way to end open wifi as we know it.
This is a great idea, the music and film industry are slowly dieing from piracy. If we want decent entertainment in the next 20 years, we have to keep paying for it. I would ban ALL file sharing… its the cheapest and easiest way. I know its spit your dummies out time, but do we want to be entertained? If we keep stealing art, there will be nothing left of any great value to steal.
The point of the matter is that if the government didnt take so much of our money for “taxes” we might be able to enjoy going to the cinema every week or so and maybe if the songs in the shops didnt come up to £1 a song we might spend a bit more on them. But as we currently stand with recesion and high taxes the industry is going to die anyway. Its not my fault most of my money is going to the pockets of the idiots that suggest those pointless laws and if I were to have a say I would make all downloads of all kinds legal. There is nobody stoping the content getting on the web so why should we pay the price for downloading something that every other person in the world can?
He Guy, go jump off a bridge!
@Guy
Entertainment has been around for jundreds of years in all sorts.. They didn’t have big flashy Ads.
You are aware when you watch a film such their are dozens of placed ads by sponsors which they would of received millions for.
Take for example James bond – Casino Royale. Can you honestly say that the vaio and sony phones were rammed in you’re face in a really obvious way?
If were talking about supporting the industry- then we do. We go to the cinema when they produce something worthwhile, we buy cd’s when its of an artist that you know is a worthwhile purchase.
I download yes, just because
a) I’m impatient and want american shows as they are released in the states. I still pay my tv license..
b) Again, the quality of ‘entertainment’ the past few years has been dire!
The industry is NEVER going to die… believing that in 20 years it is going to vanish is a terrible terrible assumption.
It’s technology, they need to learn to work with it not fight it. And suiing everyone of their “clients” of their work is not moving with it.
Downie.
It makes mi sick. They treat their costumers as criminals and now they want ISPs to cripple internet connection for everybody and get us all under surveillance just because they are not able to come up with a business model suitable for digital age… does that make you angry too? Does that make you wanna boycott those who finance RIAA?
It certainly works for me…
I have bought hundreds of original DVDs in my life. I am not going to buy any DVD, I am not going to the cinema, I am not buying any CD until they have given up their war against us – their consumers. They have no right to watch my internet connection, they have no right to force the ISPs to do that for them, they have no right to fight innovation and make everyone responsible for their inability to adapt themselves to this new situation… but they don’t understand. So lets let their wallets do the talking.
It would be much easier to live without their stupid movies than without freedom.
Why doesn’t the music industry follow in the foot steps of any search engine or website that makes money off of advertisements. Google and yahoo take in huge revenue from advertisements. Why not offer their own songs from the own website for free and collect revenue from advertising.
1. By offering the songs for free you would make the market for illegal copies of the product not worth while creating. Majority of consumer would respect this avenue and would goto the correct site to get the music.
2. You would create an avenue to generate a lot of money to make up for loss in sales.
3. Look at all the money you would save by not having to research piracy formats. No more lawsuits about incompatible mp3 players.
PS. Are they going to hook my tape deck or VCR up to the internet, so they can find out when I’m recording live feeds too. (radio, cable/satilite tv) Thats why the cd came out. There was no way copy them at first.
I’m putting my 4 cents in.
If they actually implement this law. An easy way around it would be to create a simple encryption which changes file name and bit around. Hell sending the data backwards would most likely get the data by the isp with out them know.
Who going to create this software to scan the packets and what would the price tag to this software be.
Okay 2 more cents,
How much business are the isp willing to loss to force these rules.
Two scenario’s
1st. A business lossing internet access because multiple users download illegal content. Is an ISP going to cancel a big client.
2nd. Home users downloading illegal content. Are the ISP’s willing to lose thousands of clients.
i completly agree with everything said on this site (apart from guy @ #36)
there is sooooooo many more problems in england like all the yobs killing people, phedo’s, robbery ect. but a big group of politicts have got together and thought:
we either spend money on the crimes that are crippling Britian.. OR………..
we make as much money as we can taxin Britian in another atempt to watch every move we make.
i seriously hope the isp’s are doing everything they can to stop this law going through because they will lose SOOOOOOOOOO much money if this goes through because most of the people that buy these 20MB+ Broadband deals are the ones that download all the movies, music and games.
@ Wibbly (post #28) i can only hope that your right mate because i cant think of anything else that id want to use the internet 4.
I wonder if they’ll censor google image of the MP who died in his tights with an orange down his throat.
Buy music and films end off!!!!
filesharing wont kill off the big companies but will kill off small music genres eg Hardcore trance etc!
Not if they are truly dedicated to their music…so yeah crappy genres like hxc trance etc will luckily dissapear forever. :]
Oh boo hoo hardcore trance dies out..i’d purposely download illegal files 24/7 to get rid of that sheep tentacle.
i agree with most of the ppl on this site.
@ shayne
“Why doesn’t the music industry follow in the foot steps of any search engine or website that makes money off of advertisements. Google and yahoo take in huge revenue from advertisements. Why not offer their own songs from the own website for free and collect revenue from advertising.”
WOW thats genius =D that would be a way better solution than a 3 strikes – you’re out law
Hi,
I run a music download site for underground musicians of whom the world has never heard. I also make music in several bands and sell this on the internet. We don’t make a penny. However myself and all the artists will continue to make music forever regardless of the money because we love it- of that I have no doubt. So genres will never die out because truly creative people don’t do it for the cash, its only ever been the commercial bollocks that has made any money, so file sharing has little impact on underground music anyway.
In my opinion the internet is helping smaller, underground musicals reach their audiences, it is the big record labels, who have had control on what we hear for the entire history of the record industry, who are crapping in their pants as I speak. They have ripped off artists and consumers alike for decades, now they are getting a taste of their own sh*t.
What we need is a system where downloads are defiantly tracked, but you are legally allowed to download any time. Then internet users are taxed, say 0.5%, and the extra income is divided among the artists according to thier number of downloads. If this was implemented then the wealth would be distributed, artists would get more, people could download QUALITY whenever they want and the music industry would create a bigger revenue than ever before. As a consumer you’d never even notice.
I guarantee this is the only solution.
On a final note – We should all bloody wake up and stop using this fu**ing stone-age system called money – it only supports greed and competition and hinders technological advances and cultural enlightenment.
P.S. Sorry to get political but they started it…….