Illegal downloaders mostly escape under Digital Britain paper

By Ben Hurst on Jun 17, 09 02:19 PM

Internet users who illegally download music and films will be encouraged to change their ways before they face legal action.

The Digital Britain white paper makes a distinction between otherwise law-abiding citizens and the "hard-core" who "wilfully continue unlawful activity".

This means the authorities will not be devoting their energies to teenagers who use file-sharing websites to download a couple of their favourite songs from their bedrooms.

Instead ministers want to persuade these people to use legal alternatives, such as the service unveiled by Virgin Media and Universal Music offering unlimited and unrestricted music downloads for a monthly subscription fee.

The report notes: "The Government believes piracy of intellectual property for profit is theft and will be pursued as such through the criminal law.

"The civil infringement of taking someone else's intellectual property or passing it on to others through file-sharing without any compensating payment is, in plain English, wrong.

"However, the Government also believes, and the evidence suggests, that most people, given a reasonable choice, would much prefer not to do wrong or break the law."

But ministers have taken note of the pain that illegal downloading is causing to Britain's creative industries, and are now aiming to cut unlawful online file-sharing by 70-80%.

To achieve this, they are planning to introduce legislation giving communications regulator Ofcom new powers to clamp down on persistent illegal downloaders.

The regulator would require internet service providers (ISPs) to write warning letters to users whose accounts are used for online piracy.

ISPs would also have to release personal information about illegal file-sharers if legally required to do so, allowing the worst offenders to be sued in a civil court.

If these measures fail to dent levels of illicit downloading, Ofcom will be able to invoke powers to force the ISPs to use technical means to stop the culprits.
This could include blocking certain websites or slowing the speed of the internet connection.
The UK's film and music industries voiced fears that the higher broadband speeds heralded elsewhere in the report could lead to more illegal file-sharing.

Industry bodies also suggested that the initial measures proposed by the Government would not be enough to reach its 70-80% target.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said: "Evidence shows that the Government's 'write and then sue' approach won't work.

"And Government appears to be anticipating its failure by lining up backstop powers for Ofcom to introduce technical measures later.

"This digital dithering puts thousands of jobs at risk in a creative sector that the Government recognises as the driver of the digital economy."