In the UK, a Plan To Criminalize Illegal Downloaders

krou writes "It looks like the launch of the UK Pirate Party came not a moment too soon. The Independent reports that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is going to take a hard-line stance to preserve copyright after intense lobbying by the music and film industry. 'Under the proposed laws, Ofcom, the industry regulator, would be given powers to require Internet service providers to collect information on those who downloaded pirate material. The data would be anonymous, but serious repeat infringers would be tracked down through their computer ID numbers.' Prospective punishments included restricting internet access, either slowing down an offender's broadband or disconnecting them altogether, and fines up to £50,000. The Pirate Party came out against the scheme, calling it a gross invasion of civil liberties, while Tom Watson, the former minister for digital engagement, spoke out against the move, saying that the government should stop trying criminalize downloaders just so as to 'restore 20th-century incumbents to their position of power,' but should instead be 'coming up with interventions that will nurture 21st-century creative talent.'"

Comments

Re:anonymous?

[mcgrew]

It's the data itself that is anonymous -- not the data collected about downloaders, but the data (music and films) being downloaded. There may be more "pirate" material seeded, and I'm not so sure much of that is uploaded intentionally. There was a story on slashdot last week about using a file sharing app to collect peoples' private data, as most non-slashdotters just don't know how computers work. If you can accidentally put your bank details out there, you can also put thay Metallica song you "bought" from iTunes or ripped from your purchased CD out there quite innocently.

And when I download, how can I possibly know if the material is public domain, CC, copyrighted but with permission to upload, or pirate material?

My mother had a scratchy old record from the 1940 with a song I wanted a better copy of, called "Scatterbrain". When a sample is converted to MP3, all the defects are magnified. Do you have any idea how many songs with that name there are?

As Cory Doctorow pointed out in the forward to Little Brother, "piracy" only does good for an author. He was much more succinct in his explanation, but it boils down to the fact that no author ever went broke from piracy, but many an author went broke from obscurity. That's why all his books have CC licenses and are freely available at his web site in many formats, as well as free at the public library, or for sale at book stores. The fact that he gives the stuff away and still makes the NYT best seller list is proof that "competing with free" is stupid -- use "free" to your advantage, like he does.

Studies show that "pirates" spend more money on music than non-pirates.

This is the real reason the MAFIAA is at war with "piracy". The major label music industry fears its competetion, the indies, who use "free" to their advantage while the RIAA labels have the radio. The film industry is terrified of Star Wreck: In The Perkinning, a hilarious spoof of Star Trek and Babylon Five that was incredibly well made for a few thousand dollars and given away freely.

The real pirates are the established music and film industries.

Re:anonymous?

[cliffski]

I'm a technically literate brit, but amazingly, its my opinion that people who are serial downloaders of copyrighted material are
a) breaking the law
b) free loading off honest people who pay for stuff and thus enable it to get made in the first place.

I frankly don't give a fuck if people who are caught illegally downloading copyrighted material are caught, identified and prosecuted, just as I don't give a fuck if people who break the speed limit or get caught driving without insurance get prosecuted for that.

What next? having speed cameras or letting the police check your insurance details at random is 'an invasion of privacy!!!'

Nothing is more insulting that equating being technically literate with 'defending the anonymity of internet pirates'.
What is this? digg? torrentfreak? or 'newsforpirates'?