UK Bill Introduces 10 Year Prison Sentence for Online Pirates (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The UK Government's Digital Economy Bill, which is set to revamp current copyright legislation, has been introduced in Parliament. One of the most controversial changes is the increased maximum sentences for online copyright infringement. Despite public protest, the bill increased the maximum prison term five-fold, from two to ten years. Before implementing the changes the Government launched a public consultation, asking for comments and advice from the public. But, even though the vast majority of the responses urged the authorities not to up the prison term, lawmakers decided otherwise. As a result, a new draft of the Digital Economy bill published this week extends the current prison term from two to ten years (PDF). The relevant part amends the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and simply replaces the word two with ten. Copyright holders have lobbied for this update for a long time. According to them, harsher penalties are needed to deter people from committing large-scale copyright infringement, something the Government agrees with.

Comments

It's inevitable

[taustin]

Now if they're impose the same criminal penalties for interfering with fair use, we'd be all set.

Re:It's inevitable

[Archangel Michael]

The Real Piracy is the wholesale stealing of our government by the rich, powerful elites, who conspire to get away with crimes others are rotting in jail for.

Re:It's inevitable

[hawguy]

The best way to avoid the fair use problem is to create your own original content rather than building off of someone else's copyrighted content and claiming it as your original.

Too bad that would eliminate many of the best creative works ever created, nearly all great artists built on previous works.

The entire Disney empire was built on someone else's stories. And they are doing everything they can to keep someone else from doing the same.

Re:It's inevitable

[hackwrench]

Of course not. What part of "And they are doing everything they can to keep someone else from doing the same." don't you understand. If they weren't, maybe you'd see something resembling Disney's Snow White. The point is, between Disney and a lot of other people extending copyright, the works in recent history can't be used like Disney and Philip Pullman used prior works. And when you have to go that far back to produce new content that just shows you how impoverished they've made the public domain.

Just out of curiosity

[Opportunist]

What's the maximum sentence for embezzling government money? What's the sentence for financial fraud that leaves thousands penniless? In other words, can you maybe name a few or a few dozen crimes that actually have victims that have lower sentences?

Mr. Fawkes? Could you rise from the grave and try again? I promise, nobody is going to stop you this time.

Yes

[PRMan]

Because this is obviously just as bad as threatening to kill someone or administering poison with intent to endanger life, which both have 10 year sentences in the UK...

The word for today is 'Draconian"

[rmdingler]

Two years in the pokey is not near enough incentive to keep the pirates honest... 10 years, though, that'll do it.

Look at capital punishment versus life imprisonment as a deterrent to murder, if you will... hardly any homicide in Louisiana, Missouri, and Mississippi.

For comparison

[Anonymous Coward]

what are the sentences for rape, violent beatings, the sort of thing that can ruin a person and make them dysfunctional for the rest of their lives? Are crimes of violence still comparable to the potential loss of speculated future profits of large corporations?

The average rape sentence is 8 years

[NotInHere]

source

Is this really worse than rape?

Re:The average rape sentence is 8 years

[gatfirls]

Negatively affecting corporate profits is the highest of crimes. Countries do this with tax laws and money laundering laws.

Don't hurt the rich and powerful, just each other.

Ignoring 98% consensus

[Anonymous Coward]

When the government ignores consensus of 98% the population, this is not a democracy. If not corporatocracy, the government has at least been corrupted by large financial incentives or threat.

Re:Ignoring 98% consensus

[clickclickdrone]

They are currently riding the high from leaving the EU

A) We haven't left yet. We haven't begun to leave yet. All we did was have a vote on if we should.
B) Pretty much everyone I know is bloody angry at the result, the economy is tanking and most of the stuff that was promised by the leave campaign has evaporated and many who voted leave are now regretting it.

Re:A civil matter with a criminal punishment

[OrangeTide]

How many decades should companies like Disney hold copyright? These businesses hire artists to create intellectual property, but none of it would be possible without the centuries of human history and culture to build on.
There is a reasonable number of years for protection, and the reasonable number is probably not the current 120 years.

Re:asking for comments and advice from the public

[MrKaos]

For what purpose?

To figure out who to gaol first.

Re: uk prison system

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright is the new marijuana for our prison system.