UK Government To 'Cut Off' File-Sharers

The UK government has announced that people who continually download music and films could face being banned from the internet.

An amendment has been made to the Digital Britain report, which was originally published in June, in order to give stricter punishments to persistent illegal downloaders.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is understood to have personally intervened to make the penalties for internet pirates more severe, reports BBC News.

Under the new measures, people who continually download illegal music and film content could have their internet connections cut off.

Initially, the report gave regulator OFCOM until 2012 to decide whether it was necessary to catch illegal downloaders. However, a statement from the Department For Business, Innovation & Skills released yesterday (August 25) declares that the 2012 date is "too long to wait".

The report states that it should be up to internet service providers (ISPs) to catch and take action against offenders.

However, the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) argued that it shouldn't be within their remit to police the internet, stating that it is "disappointed by the proposal to force ISPs to suspend users' accounts".

A ruling in the European Parliament in May declared that cutting off someone's internet connection could be a breach of their human rights.

Thanks for the report to Nme.com.

Comments

[Robert Gray]

Oddly enough, Mandy decides this after meeting with David Geffen whilst on holiday. Idiot wasn't even elected to parliament.

[soapalot]

A ruling in the European Parliament in May declared that cutting off someone's internet connection could be a breach of their human rights.

Does the internet really need to be up there with the right to food, equality before the law and freedom of expression on the list of human rights? I don't think so. You could argue that it's part of educational rights but you don't need the internet to be educated.

I really don't understand how they're going to do this.

in order to tell whether something is copyrighted the ISP would have to actually monitor what it was you were downloading. That's one hell of an invasion of privacy. You could blacklist sites that have copyrighted content on them but then you'd have to block the likes of rapidshare and megaupload, and they're completely legitimate sites with valid uses.

[Ninjamonkey767]

^So true. You can't really police such a thing by just blacklisting. And human rights? lol. Not to mention forcing the ISPs to do the work is very unlikely. Nothing's going to materialize out of this. Pirates are elusive critters, and this "privacy" thing is the main thing they can rely on to protect them. As long as they have a right to their privacy, nothing will change.

[MuDvAyNe41689]

cutting peoples internet off isnt going to stop them, if they have a laptop they can easily go to a wireless hotspot and just connect to the wifi and download again.

[zdh]

Banned from the internet? Good luck enforcing that.

[ProgMetalDT]

Well, it's a good thought. Illegal downloading is out of control and stupid, but unfortunately, the people here are correct. People could use laptops or get cds from people who actually buy them.

[matt169]

Back to copying CD's off your mates then is it lads?

[CaMacKid]

Yeah sure, waste your time with the internet "vandals" and ignore real issues like street violence. Also, whatever happened to crossing the digital divide?

[OnlyOnThursdays]

I think its a good idea. Don't know how it would work but I would laugh my ass off if it came true.

[tehawesomness96]

That is the most stupid law ever made. As in, EVER.

[hairypineapple]

It's like the beginning of what happened in V for Vendetta

[uk.mace]

Let's be honest, there's no way this is gonna work. It'll cost more money than it's really worth and what about the other people using a router where someone else has been blocked off? They just lose it...

[Sam Mézec]

Mandelson (or Dracula as Frankie Boyle calls him..) can have my internet when he takes it from my cold dead hands.

[ChucklesMginty]

This will not work.
If they want to stop file sharing they'll have to shut down torrent sites themselves, as well as P2P programs such as Limewire (which is not gonna happen.) Even then rapidshare etc. Will still play a major role, you can even share music through Mobile Blu-tooth.

They'll have to put a very tight copy-protection on the actual music files, but even then people can still crack them etc.

[Zilcho]

I can't see an ISP cutting off its own paying customers. That's just bad business practice.

[antisaint182]

hairypineapple wrote:

It's like the beginning of what happened in V for Vendetta

Havent seen that film... TO THE ILEGAL DOWNLOADING SITES!

[XxShadow19]

taking the internet away from a select group of people is like telling an emo kid that thinking dark thoughts isn't right... they will still do it anyway

[Phantasmasaurus]

well, that's a little bit of respect lost for the UK government on my part.