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10 Years in Prison For Online Pirates a Step Closer in the UK (torrentfreak.com)
The UK Government's Digital Economy Bill has moved a step closer to becoming law after its second reading in Parliament. With unanimous support, the current two-year maximum custodial sentence for online piracy is almost certain to increase to a decade, TorrentFreak reports. From the article: Due to UK copyright law allowing for custodial sentences of 'just' two years for online offenses, anti-piracy groups such as the Federation Against Copyright Theft have chosen to pursue their own private prosecutions. These have largely taken place under legislation designed for those who have committed fraud, rather than the more appropriate offense of copyright infringement. Physical pirates (CDs, DVDs) can be jailed for up to 10 years under current legislation. During the past few years, there have been lobbying efforts for this punishment to apply both on and offline. That resulted in a UK Government announcement last year indicating that it would move to increase the maximum prison sentence for online copyright infringement to ten years. They also urge Google to do something about growing incidents of piracy.
The UK starts to look like the world of Max Headroom.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
10 years for piracy?
Actually until 1998 piracy used to carry a mandatory death sentence in the UK under the 1837 piracy act. This was one of the few crimes which still had it after the (almost) abolition of the death sentence in 1965. Mind you it did have to be committed on the high seas so it only applied to those downloading content while on a ship at sea.
Prisoner 1: "What are you in for?"
Prisoner 2: "I posted a low grade copy of "Spock's Brain" to YouTube."
Prisoner 1: "What!? Are you mad? How many views did you get?"
Prisoner 2: "Zero."
Prisoner 1: "How long is your sentence?"
Prisoner 2: "They are giving me 'The Chair' tomorrow morning."
Prisoner 1: "Dude, I'm sorry. That sucks."
Prisoner 2: "Yeah... well, my brother-in law did the same thing; only it was "Threshold".
Prisoner 1: "Star Trek Voyager? The Wacko Amphibians??"
Prisoner 2: "Yeah. That one. He died in a drone strike, an hour after it was posted."
Prisoner 1: "Who killed him?"
Prisoner 2: "It's a toss up between Trekkie's and the government. I'm leaning towards the government."
Prisoner 1: "Well... I'm out tomorrow. I guess killing 12 people isn't what it used to be. Your president really means business in clearing this Cuban prison."
The sign above the door reads 'Guantanamo Bay'
Thankfully the USA has the 8th amendment forbidding cruel or unusual punishment. So we won't see such a bill here.