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Government urged to disconnect pirate file sharers

Organisations want to cut off users for repeatedly downloading illegal content, but ISPs don’t agree that this is the right thing to do.

By Asavin Wattanajantra, 12 May 2009 at 11:21

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Unions and businesses from Britain’s creative industries have come together to urge the government to make a decisive move against illegal file-sharing.

Organisations including the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) made a statement urging the government to protect industry from the threat of illegal downloading and piracy.

The groups called on ISPs to first send warning notices to offenders, and if multiple warnings were ignored, to then disconnect users who continue to download illegally.

In practice, this would mean the government would need to create new legislation alongside Ofcom.

The call to action comes as the government this summer finalises its Digital Britain report, which recommended ways to protect digital industries.

“The UK government has the opportunity to take action now to address piracy which will protect the 800,000 jobs dependent upon the creative industries in the UK,” said Equity general secretary Christine Payne in a statement.

France has previously tried to implement a similar system, but it has since been overturned. The EU has also slammed the plans, while the UK's own intellectual minister this January said the government would not force ISPs to take such action.

Industry body the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) said it disputed the calls for the disconnection of users, or any other type of technological measure to deal with copyright infringement.

ISPA also said that ISPs, consumers groups and the European Parliament believed that disconnection was a disproportionate response.

“ISPA recognises that there is a problem with unlawful P2P file sharing,” said ISPA secretary Nicholas Lansman.

“But it is important to recognise that a major part of the solution lies in licensing reform and the availability of legal content online.”

The call comes as the British Software Alliance revealed that 41 per cent of all software was pirated, while £35 billion was lost in revenue last year.

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1 comments

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Piracy

Simply looking at the amount of copies software and assuming that if it was not available freely on services such as Bittorrent, people would go out and buy it, is ridiculous.
Most copied software is used because it is free, if it wasn't, a free or cheap alternative would be found (possibly with the exception of operating systems).
The same goes for music, I have actually bought 400% more since being able to download CDs free, I certainly wouldn't be going out to buy mountains of Cds if they were not available free.
Possibly, piracy actually increases sales, as it is difficult to find DVDs, CDs, and increasingly Computer programs and games that are equivalent to legitimate bought copies.
Audio quality is inferior, and most downloads, including legal sources, are far inferior to the "real thing". ie) It is very difficult, if not impossible to find a source of legal downloads in CD quality. Wave files, .ape, or ,flac for example. More often than not they are in low bitrates and encoded in lousy Joint Stereo MP3, which reduces high frequencies and seriously compromises stereo seperation.
DVD's are compressed and feature pixelisation as well as missing the full sound and DVD extras, and programs and games are increasingly more difficult to get to run successfully with frequent updates killing any with pirated keys or "cracks".
Instead of looking at every pirated copy as a lost retail sale, they should be regarded as targetted advertising and samples.
If you really want it, you will buy it, otherwise it is a compromise in either quality or useability.
You know it makes sense!
Sorry for the speeling mistakes...........

By G8ASO on Tuesday May 12