The UK government is ready to release a Green Paper which will outline plans to officially adopt a "three strikes" anti-piracy stance similar to that already seen across the Channel.
Under the outlined plans, should you get caught downloading copyrighted material three times, your Internet connection could be terminated - possibly for life. The first offence nets an email warning, the second a suspension and the third prompts the permanent ban.
At the moment, while ISPs would be legally obliged to take action against piracy, it's undecided whether different ISPs will be able to exchange information on banned users; if they do, then I'd imagine most ISPs would refuse to sign you up, leaving you scrambling for free WiFi every time you need your net fix.
In addition, there are questions about arbitration; who, for example, deals with claims of innocence such as cases where an illegally downloading user was piggybacking on your WiFi?
Draconian measures that don't understand the download age or completely legitimate protection of an artist's rights? Tell us what you think.
[via The Times]
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My worry is the 'copyrighted material' part because technically that's EVERYTHING on the internet, from an opinion to a youtube video. Now what if I downloaded an image from flickr that wasn't mine to display on my desktop as wallpaper? What if my friend gave me permission to download some fanfic she wrote or a video she made - where do I stand on that? Are they just saying this so that people who download whole films and albums are stopped - but then what about the Radiohead album where you didn't have to pay? Or those sites where you can legally watch TV shows etc online but aren't necessarily well known by ISPs?
Even if this paper is passed, it isn't going to work in practice. Save for, the odd show trial here and there.
There is a wider issue here than piracy. For ISP's to know you are downloading copyrighted material, then they have to search all your traffic. Which even ISPs say would be like the post office opening everyone's mail.
Then again, if all this does come to pass it would have one benefit. Joe Bloggs would be forced into thinking about encryption and security, given that all his/her private e-mails are going to be searched, in case there's a copyrighted attachment.
Ooh, they better not. I don't like the sound of this.
How will I get my music/films/photoshop cs3 :(