UK's 'Three Strikes' Piracy Measures Published

judgecorp writes "UK regulator Ofcom has published details of plans to disconnect illegal file-sharers. It is the 'three strikes' policy which ISPs unsuccessfully appealed against, and it requires ISPs to keep a list of persistent copyright infringers (identified, as usual, by their IP address). ISPs will have to send monthly warning letters to those who infringe above a certain threshold. If a user gets three letters within a single year, the ISP must hand anonymised details to the copyright owner, who can apply for a court order to obtain the infringer's identity (or at least, an identity associated with that IP address)."

Comments

£20 to appeal

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes thats right, even though it is only an accusation, it will cost the innocent £20 to deny the accusation! telegraph article

Guilty until you pay up

[Mr_Silver]

I can't believe the submitter missed out the worse bit!

From the BBC News:

Suspected internet pirates will have 20 working days to appeal against allegations of copyright infringement and must pay £20 to do so, according to revised plans to enforce the UK's Digital Economy Act.

So now you're automatically assumed guilty .. and can only prove you're innocent after you've paid for the "privilege" to do so!

Re:Please, Please, Please start a trend.

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

The key difference is that driving recklessly is a physical danger to other motorists, downloading of copyright material has zero physical impact.

Re:Please, Please, Please start a trend.

[Andy_R]

The thing that stops this is the proposed claim process, which is insanely complex. It requires copyright holders to accurately predict in advance how many claims they will make, take part in a blind dutch auction over how much they are willing to pay per claim, and the cost of claiming more than doubles if you are claiming against someone connected to the 4th or 5th biggest ISP.

The does not to allow small copyright holders such as independent musicians, journalists or photographers to pursue actions. Ofcom's consultation shows that the only people pointing this out and insisting that this would be wrong were the Pirate Party UK â" we don't like the DEAct, but if we are going to have it, we want it to be fair.