Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

10 Years in Prison For Online Pirates a Step Closer in the UK (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the big-jail-time dept.

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.

7 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Crazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    10 years for piracy? Force them to pay for the pirated content, plus a fine. Why prison at all?

    Also, what about google? Why should google "do something"? Not their table . . .

  2. It's the new war on drugs! by MikeDataLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's put lots of young people in prison on long mandatory sentences for petty crimes. Sounds genius!

    --
    Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    1. Re:It's the new war on drugs! by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's put lots of young people in prison on long mandatory sentences for petty crimes. Sounds genius!

      Plutocracy at work:

            Rape, stab, murder = yawn

            Copy My-Little-Pony vid = SLAMMER FOREVER!

      You can stab people, just not profits.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  3. Prison conversations become more ridiculous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    PrisonerA: "What are you in for?"
    PrisonerB: "I was caught with a potted plant in my home."
    PrisonerC: "I couldn't remember my password."

    and now,

    PrisonerD: "I consumed propaganda without also paying for the privilege."

    And many more! Western civilization has gone bonkers.

  4. Up the ante! by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    10 years? For 10 years I can mow down an MP with my car. Or kidnap his kids and rape them repeatedly before cutting off a limb or two. Or after, if that's more my fancy. I could also blow up the effin' Parliament (of course while nobody is inside, else it could mean a longer sentence).

    No, wait, blowing up the Parliament carries a lower sentence.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. in the mean time... by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nazi war criminals serves five years or less.
    Apparently IP piracy is more severe in scope than industrialized murder of six million.

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  6. 6 months for rape or a decade for copying a file? by MooseTick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know its US vs UK, but Brock Turner (http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/06/us/sexual-assault-brock-turner-stanford/) received a 6 month sentence for raping an unconscious woman, yet someone else could spend 20 times that length of time imprisoned for copying a file?

    And people wonder why we question our faith in the police, government and the system!

    --
    Ninjas don't carry tic tacs