The Federation tell ISPs to get house in order
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Data Protection, Blog, Internet, Uncategorized on
When Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, says “if we can’t get voluntary arrangements we will legislate” as he did with regard to intellectual property theft when interviewed by the BBC a few months back, you have to wonder just what the powers that be have in mind. Calling for Internet Service Providers to take a “more activist role” when it comes to illegal file-sharing might sound OK at first, but dig a little deeper and you cannot help but wonder if this is just another step towards that big brother society we seem to be tumbling headlong into. After all, Triesman himself admits that by implementing a voluntary scheme to track illegal file-shares then it would be “quite possible to know where it is happening and who it is happening with”.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not in favour of an intellectual property free for all. P2P services that exploit copyright holders by distributing their material without making any royalty payments are, as far as I am concerned, fair game when it comes to legislation and law enforcement. I am less convinced that the right way to progress is to chase after the kids using these services, or more likely their parents who usually have little idea what Johnny is getting up to in his bedroom with that laptop anyway. And I am certainly less than impressed with the notion of allowing yet another method of citizen surveillance slip stealthily in through the back door.
Certainly the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) is equally unconvinced about the merits of shifting the blame to the ISP, arguing that acting as the conduit for illegal peer-to-peer traffic is not the same as generating it, participating in it or profiting from it. Indeed, according to the ISPA “ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope. ISPs deal with many more packets of data each day than postal services and data protection legislation actually prevents ISPs from looking at the content of the packets sent.”
And there lies the rub when it comes to legislation. Non technical types as his Lordship, despite being advised no doubt by a committee of white coat and pen protector clad numpties, are unable to see beyond the political knee jerk reaction and the media headlines. The actual implementation of any such law, or indeed a ‘voluntary’ agreement, has to take into account the technical ability to make it work. Which is why I cannot help but feel that there is more behind this than the IP copyright issue. Surely the technical committee advising him must have told Triesman that it is all but impossible to identify illegally shared copyright material from the data stream across a multitude of likely scenarios. Surely that same committee must have advised him that it would be a pretty good method of creating a nice database of personal identifying material though.
The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) has welcomed the news, however, insisting according to CEO John Lovelock that “The UK is rightly proud of the innovative skills of the hundreds of small companies that produce world class software solutions, but the livelihood of these firms is constantly being put at risk by Internet Service Providers freely allowing illegal distribution to take place. With the ecosystem of the British economy changing from its historic manufacturing base to more service and creative-led industries, these small companies are the lifeblood of the country. We have a duty to make sure that their intellectual property - the core of their business - is properly protected. For too long people have been flouting the law by making illegal copies of software available over the internet, at the same time they have been afforded anonymity by their internet service provider. This cannot be right, and cannot be acceptable. ISPs must get their own house in order. Hiding behind a defence that they are merely a conduit is simple not acceptable.”
Well, that’s OK then…
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