For a long time now ISP’s have (at times) had the data which could incriminate those who download or upload copyrighted material, without the correct authorisation. With this data again up until now it has been up to the ISP what they do with this it, such as should they contact or warn copyright owners, make users aware of the wrong doing or do nothing etc. This however is all about to change, and what is required of this data/what should be done with it, will be made very clear.
A man by the name of Lord Stephen Carter has drafted a report (i have not read, as they are usually very long!), which in a summary, suggests in which ‘digital britain’ should operate. With regards to UK Internet piracy, this subject is one which is of great importance in the draft.
As an example from the report: ISP’s by law will be required to inform down loaders/up loaders of copyrighted data, that what they are doing, the ISP knows about. For those who do not listen, mass data on the user will be collected and made available to the copyright owners.
The above is just part of this draft report, which was triggered by the MoU – Memorandum of Understanding. This document outlined an agreement between ISP’s and copyright holders, to state how they would deal with piracy. This was done last July. As an example to see how far this MoU has gone, think of this – Did you recieve a letter from your ISP educating you online piracy and such? Well if you did, your ISP suspects you of exchanging copyrighted material or someone else downloading/uploading from your IP address!
Although I feel to uphold copyright law and to protect creators is important, I feel any enforcement will have to be very carefully thought out. A key reason for this is the example above. If you have an un-protected wireless network, anyone could connect, and violate these laws in any number of ways – Any data they exchange will be through your IP address. Of course no one is denying the wireless router should be protected anyway! I believe there was an issue like this, which featured during a watch dog episode. The Link is here: Watchdog Article.
Well anyway that’s about the crux of it! The only other comment I would make is that, we seem to be becoming a “Super Nanny” nation, which now seem to be attempting to censor the Internet. The question I also ask is where does this leave sites like the BBC Iplayer and especially YouTube? Well anyway a move like this should be quite good for us lot with jobs in IT!
To find out more, check out the finacial times article: Internet piracy regulations planned for UK
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