As we reported below, photographers are very concerned about the threat to copyright in their photographs that the Digital Economy Bill poses. However one part of it offers an interesting scenario…
“Amendment 120A to the Digital Economy Bill was voted through the House of Lords yesterday that could force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block websites that are deemed to contain content that infringes copyright. Whilst this in itself isn’t anything new (section 97A of the Copyright Act allows the same thing), 120A breaks the balance that currently exists under 97A between rightsowners and service providers, and shifts the bias in the favour of the former, which may scare ISPs in to having to act to avoid court action.
ISPA, a trade body for UK ISPs, is outraged that the amendment was voted through, and deem that this is negligent as the legal, technical and practical issues have not been debated in enough detail.”
- reported in thinkbroadband
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Crazy bill…It’s like making the highway agency responsible for thieves using the roads. There are better ways to tackle piracy, none of which seem to have been considered.
For example, force search engines NOT to post links to torrent sites (they are accessories as things stand — moreso than ISPs who provide a service but search engines exist to make profits only and do so by signposting goods: Boys, you want easy pickings? Go here!). MOST users haven’t a clue where to download illegal software, music, videos, etc. They rely on search engines.
Make hosts and ISPs search for illegal goods on their servers (robots can do it) and enforce their policies of not including material that doesn’t belong to a user by banning the user (legal ground work already is in place: you signed NOT to include copyrighted material in your webspace).
Force domain name providers to take down domains that host torrent sites (everyone knows they exist for only one purpose: distribute property that doesn’t belong to them). Again, they can employ robots to find sites. This way, it doesn’t matter pirates host sites abroad in order to avoid the law. You just cut off the domain (the gateway). No domain, no publicly accessible website.
Honestly, with all the consultations, etc, research, wasted public money, they still cannot see what’s under their nose.