UK High Court Orders ISPs to Identify File-sharers

securitas writes "The BBC reports that the British High Court has ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to divulge the identities of 28 customers accused of music file-sharing to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK equivalent of the RIAA. The court order issued by Mr Justice Blackburne is a big victory for the BPI and its umbrella oranization, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), especially after recent setbacks in Canada (CRIA) and the USA. Blackburne is quoted as saying, 'On the face of it this appears to be a powerful case of copyright infringement.' The ISPs have 14 days to comply with the court order. More coverage at the Guardian/Reuters and the Register."

Comments

Re:Pay those starving artists to front the campaig

[fr0dicus]

Any relation to Britney Spears? Maybe a less well off relative perhaps?

Re:But...

[grumpygrodyguy]

I thought only Bush wanted to take away freedoms and civil liberties, not the enlightened, peaceful Europeans. Just goes to show that the "Bush is worse than Hitler", anti-Patriot Act, war protesting Euro-trash aren't more free than us Americans after all. :)

Umm, the parent poster may not have put this as delicately as he could have, but he has a very legitimate point. One of the main reasons the Bush supporters are sobering up is because world opinion of Bush is so low. He is largely viewed as an irresponsible, arrogant, self-assured jackass who had no business being elected in the first place. John Ashcroft is a direct result of Bush's presidency, and it's been Ashcroft(and other republican leadship, i.e. Orin Hatch) who's spearheaded the campaign to squash consumer rights.

What's even more scary is that 40-60% of the over 250 million americans are considering reelecting Bush in November. If european leadership continues to follow suit with the US by sacrificing individual rights and freedoms in order to increase profits for large corporations, what kind of message is that going to send to us? That it's ok to do these things?

Many of us in the US need the rest of the world to stand up against this kind of tyranny. Please don't just roll over and say 'it must be okay because america is doing it'. It's not ok, and many of the more civilized european countries need to do thier part to make clear that people should come before greedy corporations.