UK P2P Fight Brewing

forunder writes "Zeropaid has been covering a very hot topic going on in the UK right now. The government, prodded by entertainment lobbyists, has gotten six UK ISPs to agree to help police piracy on their networks. A leaked government letter says they are looking to cut internet piracy by 80%. In the same week Microsoft released a study which found that some 54% of UK file sharers are between 11-16. The UK's Green Party has already spoken up, calling the new policies an 'Attack on Civil Liberties.'"

Comments

It's summer, and Slashdot is trolling

[mumblestheclown]

Yet another slashdot troll headline. A not unreasonable cooperative attempt by private companies to cut piracy with no government intervention whatsoever is an "attack on civil liberties."

Let's see if I have the basic dance correct: if a GOVERNMENT program comes out that attempts to curb piracy, then you scream and yell that privacy is a private matter between individual and rightsholder. If a PRIVATE progam is developed to combat piracy, even one with quite mild constraints like this one, we get bitching and whining that corportations are acting in place of government.

Here are the golden oldies we expect to see in this thread:

• I trade my linux binaries via P2P (fine - then you should have no problem of rightsholders doing file-hash-based enforcement)
• I learned about band X from P2p (fine - in which case if it makese economic sense for a company or band to release thusly, they will.. it's their decision to make)
• piracy involves guys with eye patches. this is copyright infringement. actually, it's both. get thee to a dictionary.
• yes, but they can't tell with absolute certainty who is using a given PC. absolute certainty is not a condition of law - reasonableness is.
• It's not illegal if it hasn't been released in my country (anime, etc). NONSENSE.
• P2P is fair use. No, it isn't. Especially in Britain, where the concept of fair use is much more restricted than in the USA (which *IS* an actual problem with the british system). But, don't worry - your 1.5 tb of movies and music isn't fair use ANYWHERE.

have i gotten the more obvious ones sorted?

Re:Come try this shit in Australia

[Goffee71]

Indeed, I'd liken our nation's respective attitudes to those of our respective Marines when confronted with the Iranian Navy in the Gulf:

British Marines - 'Don't cause a scene lads - we surrender'

Aussie Marines - 'F**k off!'

Guess which lot spent a month in a jail, were humiliated on TV and a disgrace to the nation. Go the Aussies on this one