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UK Anti-Piracy Law Survives Court Challenge

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-setting-up-a-more-dramatic-fall dept.

Grumbleduke writes "The UK's controversial Digital Economy Act survived its second court challenge today. Two ISPs had appealed last year's ruling that the measures included did not breach EU law and, for the most part, the Court of Appeal agreed, ruling in favor of the Government and the 10 unions and industry groups supporting the law in court. The decision was welcomed by the industry groups, but criticized by the UK's Pirate Party, whose leader pointed to the lack of evidence that the law would have any positive effects. A UK copyright specialist noted that the ISPs may still appeal the decision to the UK's Supreme Court, seeking a reference to the Courts of Justice of the European Union, and wondered if the law could now attract the same attention from the Internet as SOPA and ACTA. The law is still some way from being implemented, and the first notifications are not expected to be sent to alleged file-sharers before 2013, and the next steps could also be open to a legal challenge."

7 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Constant Vigilance... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SOPA/PIPA were defeated.

    So the next option for the MafiAA is to buy similar laws in a few other countries, then argue the US needs to pass SOPA/PIPA anyways to "harmonize with international law."

    1. Re:Constant Vigilance... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They don't really have vast power. What they have is unchallenged power.

      Ford can't just do things. If they started writing a law specifically to benefit Ford (and screw everyone else) the next day every Democrat would oppose it because the UAW/environmentalists said so, and every non-Michigan Republican would join in because businesses in their district were being screwed.

      Hollywood's unions are on their side re: piracy, which means the AFL is on their side, which means all the other unions have solidarity with the Hollywood studios. The business community doesn't care about fair use, because restricting fair use doesn't screw them. Therefore Hollywood gets to be the only people in the room when decisions like SOPA are made, which gives the ability to write the damn treaty.

      To an extent the internet and geek activism can stop this. When we are organized we are unstoppable. We are everywhere, and we can influence all those people who jumped on the SOPA bandwagon when it was easy, and then jumped off when we noticed what they were doing.

      The problem is convincing geeks to all give money to the same organization, on a consistent basis, even after said groups issues a press release they don't like.

    2. Re:Constant Vigilance... by Znork · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, the business community should care, as IPR is part of what makes western cost levels prohibitively high. From a macroeconomic perspective monopoly rights are equatable with taxation (having exactly the same effect as, for example, VAT) and should really be counted as part of the total tax level in an economy.

      That, of course, means that any 'gained jobs' that the monopoly rights proponents claim to get are taken from someone else. And that any jobs lost in those industries are gained elsewhere as consumer discretionary income is directed to other services. Which means that other unions should certainly consider any support, as it's their members that lose their jobs as more money is directed to Hollywood.

  2. That's it? by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This was the best the pirate party could come up with? From the article, "No one has proved that the Act will help the creative industries financially, that is just lobbyists' spin." He couldn't point out the damage it might cause? The chilling effect it could have? The annoyances it would cause the average citizen? Or short of that, he didn't try at least tried to demonstrate the financial benefits to publishers of piracy? If that's the best they can come up with, no wonder they lost the case.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:That's it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The same BBC that never once interviewed a PP member during the last election.

      That'd be because there was precisely one candidate. PPUK are a tiny party. The amount of coverage they've gotten from the likes of the BBC and various non-Murdoch newspapers is massively disproportionate to their size. Let's celebrate the fact that the BBC even know who Loz is and actually turn to the PPUK for comment on matters like the Digital Economy Act, rather than moan about the lack of 24/7 coverage of the Pirate Party world-wide.

  3. The solution to all of this is... by SlithyMagister · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Never EVER again buy any CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or ANY OTHER crap that these industries try to sell you.
    Go to movies if you must -- when you're done, remember them.
    Attend music concerts -- the artists get more money from live performances, so you're helping support them. Buying media does the artist very little good -- pennies per item, or so I'm told.
    If they come on TV record 'em on your PVR if you like.
    Listen to music on the radio, and enjoy its fleeting beauty
    Download whatever you please, after all, your advertising dollars, your theatre tickets and your concert tickets paid the FULL COST OF PRODUCTION.
    All the rest of the drek merely goes to line the pockets of the rich greedy leeches that use the performers as pawns in their quest to mine your pockets.

    So take it away from them. Don't buy the crap.

  4. Hit them with their own bat by agentgonzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The Act will mean ISPs will have to send warning letters to alleged illegal file downloaders, as well as potentially cutting users off." (emphasis mine)

    My wondering is this. It's been stated many many times that a major problem with this is the lack of proof - ie, the 'alleged' illegal filesharers. If you could find out the (home) IP address of the heads of the BPI (British equivalent of RIAA) and then send notification to BT that you have detected that IP address illegally downloading a copy of your book/movie/song/poem (no proof required) then potentially BT will have to send warnings to them. If enough people do this, then by these rules BT would have to disconnect the user (the heads of the BPI's home internet connection) from the internet.

    Sure, it's not going to stop the problem, but it will at least annoy them with the blatant abuse of power that they are wanting over the telecommunications industry.