UK ISPs Breathe A Sigh Of Relief

[The_root_of_all_evil]

UK ISPs Breathe A Sigh Of Relief

Despite the Despite dire rumblings [http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?ISPs_to_report_details_of_illegal_downloaders&in_article_id=510436&in_page_id=34] about an upcoming "Piracy Tax" on British ISPs, the government has said there will be no such thing

Lord Carter's Digital Britain report [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89032-Britain-Promises-Broadband-for-All] contained a proposal to make ISPs directly responsible for copyright infringement, which would've sent ISP rates skyrocketing just as the government is trying to get Britain hooked up to broadband.

But according to LINX's head of public affairs, Malcom Hutty [https://publicaffairs.linx.net/news/?page_id=677], "The threats are off the table. The government has recognized that the principle responsibility for protecting their own property lies with the music industry. The ISPs duty is to co-operate. It's not ISPs' responsibility to solve the music industry's problems completely."

LINX is the co-operatively owned internet backbone exchange.

Under the newly proposed framework, copyright holders will need to collect the IPs of infringers themselves and notify the ISP. The ISPs will log the complaint and after a specified number, will pass the details of the infringer to the copyright holders, who can then issue a summons.

Of course, this only works on static IP addresses, of which there are very few.

With the Piracy Tax down in flames, how about the Rights Agency quango that was supposed to fight pirates? Very little support has been given and a lot of confused ideas, means that it's doubtful it will continue.

Digital Britain is still looking very analog, but at least your ISP rates won't soar.

Source: The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/30/isp_carter_music_policing/]

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[thenumberthirteen]

"The government has recognized that the principle responsibility for protecting their own property lies with the music industry. The ISPs duty is to co-operate. It's not ISPs' responsibility to solve the music industry's problems completely."

Damn Right. It is also the responsibility of users not to download pirate music, but it's actually easier than buying it.

 

[ellimist337]

I'm not sure how many music labels and film studios will have people sift to find illegal downloaders and their IP's. I guess the big ones could hire people to just do that. Interesting that they're the ones complaining, and somebody is standing up and saying "you're problem; you take care of it."

 

[kaiZie]

the thing is, most people use firewalls and such that mask your IP as it is, the only person I know to ever get caught downloading was my mate Al and that was through a connection at Uni in Halls of Residence. All he got was a slap on the wrist and got told to say sorry, none of the scare stories which fly about.

In any case, the ISP should not be held responsible and rightly so. However, given the current climate of things I doubt people will be hired to sift through the internet to find people downloading the odd song here and there, the money used to hire and/or train people to find downloaders would, in most probable cases, be more than any law suit would bring in.