Britain threatens ISPs with possible piracy legislation

The U.K. is close to stepping into the ongoing dispute between Internet service providers and the creative industries over curbing piracy.

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[dazirius]

Speaking as a British citizen...

... I'm sure I won't be alone in saying that whoever came up with this ludicrous proposal is obviously in the pocket of at least one media corporation and can take a running jump.

Also, reading between the lines, what this proposal actually makes possible is for the government to legitimately and secretly silence whomever they choose with respect to publication on the internet. (or at least try to, I'm not sure they'd get very far for very long)

Careful what you say about the British government if this becomes law. You might find yourself "suspected" of illegal filesharing 3 times and have your connection cut.

Daz

[CloakedMirror]

A pointless exercise

How long are governments, and the entertainment industry, going to continue the inane battle against file sharing. As has been demonstrated time and again, every time these entities attempt to block and/or reduce file sharing traffic, the community finds ways to go around the barriers.

Requiring the ISPs to try stopping this traffic will only put more burdens on their systems, and will at best slow the traffic down for short periods of time. The only way to completely stop this traffic is to shut down the internet. How long will it be before the entertainment industry tries that approach?

[knowles2]

yeah this gonna work

Not
I am sure this will counter piracy, for all about ten minutes, the community who have out smarted the record/film industry for the last 8 years will out smart them again and again and again, it a endless cycle.

Encryption all data being transfer between the computers/torrents, is one way I am thinking of. But I am sure the creative geniuses who thought up bit torrents will think up other more ingenious ways to hide it for ISP or ISP will simply take the government to court/or ignore the rules themselves. After all the government declare them to just providers the pipes for the internet and not the police force to police it in a law a couple of years ago.

If the Government really interest in helping our creative industries, create tax breaks for film/music and the expanding gaming industries. Apply these tax break to only companies who market and sell their products in innovative creative ways, after all they are suppose to be a creative industry.Say a 50 percent tax cuts to truly creative companies, these will revive the industry attracting film and game production companies and music labels from around the world to British shores.

[AHassan5]

(As they haven't realised already) It wont work!!!

This is the most stupid thing of 2008.

So they will put pressure on ISPs to reduce music/video piracy? I'm not sure what the politicians and the entertainment industry were thinking.

How can (for example) BT monitor the trillions of bits on their network? And wouldn't that violate privacy laws?

Best thing to do is let them pass the law and show them why it wont work.