UK Government To Terminate File Sharers' Net Access

An anonymous reader writes "New plans published by the UK Govt show that they hope to terminate internet access for people suspected of breaching copyright by file sharing. Under the proposed new laws ISPs who fail to enforce the policy will face prosecution in the courts. Users falling foul of the new law will be subject to a three strike policy: First suspected instance of illegal file sharing they would receive a warning, at the second — a suspension, and at the third they will have their Internet connection terminated. It isn't clear whether users will be prevented from ever using the internet again, or whether simply subscribing to a new ISP will reset the process."

please dob yourself in

[jaxtherat]

I love how at the bottom of TFA there is this bit:

Do you download illegally or do you think it's right that illegal downloaders should be disconnected? Send us your comments by filling out the form below.

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Comments

:)

Not suprising, and tbh about time

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone here REALLY think that this whole story will end any other way? There are tens of thousands of people employed making digital content, in a huge industry that pays its taxes and keeps people employed. Are governments really going to say "tough shit" and encourage people to just pirate content?
Like it or not 99% of the content on p2p services is copyrighted.
Like it or not, no business can compete with free, and still pay its staff.
People I know who work in the sector are worried about future prospects and already looking at getting out into a 'bricks and mortar' style trade where they know they will get paid and not ripped off.

I have no sympathy with anyone who gets caught with this. Everyone pirating content is just leeching off the honest people who don't mind paying for their entertainment. It's fair to nobody, and unsustainable.
And to anyone saying "it wont work 100%". No it won't. Nor does locking my door work against a determined burglar, but it will help deter casual piracy, and its the mass casual piracy that is really hurting.

Re:Lawmakers

[kellyb9]

But this shit would never fly over here.

He has a point. In the US, our congress concerns itself over more important matters like steroids in baseball. You Brits could take a serious lesson in ineptitude.

Re:Would we tolerate this with any other utility?

[Lumpy]

The MPAA and RIAA are already looking to pass legislation to turn off your power if they think you are listening to or watching unauthorized music or movies.

Those damned customers, they must be STOPPED!

Re:"Suspected" incidence

[MrNemesis]

Why so cynical? To think that such established and technically competent companies as BT, Virgin and Tiscali would make such egregious errors is unthinkable. If you are a criminal, you are cut off. Therefore, if you're cut off, you're a criminal. Is it really so hard for all of you freeloading hippies to understand?

Re:Ummmm

[LiquidCoooled]

So all that would be required is a virus or trojan to make random connection to the top 10 list of piratebay on random computers and the remaining bandwidth will be mine after everyone else is kicked off?

Re:Ummmm

[TriezGamer]

Somehow, I don't think being the only user in the swarm is going to benefit your download speeds.

Re:6 Million "Illegal Downloaders" in the UK

[kellyb9]

sounds like a lot of work. I'd rather just leech of my neighbors wireless and download music from there.

Re:Not so fast

[ppanon]

How do you explain the rich culture and works that were created before copyrights were even invented?

Again, this one is easy: far less work was produced, and far fewer people enjoyed it because it wasn't as widely available

It seems to me Shakespeare, Mozart and the like did OK. At the least the first two produced some popular works and their lack of distribution at the time was more due to technical limitations and Mozart himself was a violator of the content control mechanisms of the day. Yeah, you won't find a collection "Boy bands of the 1750's", but that's not a big loss.

Re:6 Million "Illegal Downloaders" in the UK

[IdeaMan]

I'd rather just leech of my neighbors wireless and download music from there.

Please don't do that.
That will prevent the rest of us from connecting to the automatic mesh network through them.