UK, soon the EU and next the whole world takes on file-sharing

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/uks-terrifying-anti-piracy-plans-leak-091119/

Tomorrow morning Lord Mandelson will present the Digital Economy Bill to the public, which among other things is aimed at reducing illicit file-sharing. According to parts of the bill that leaked today, the legislation could lead to jail terms for file-sharers and unprecedented power for the entertainment industries.

Over the past months the UK government has tried to tackle the issue of online piracy. This has resulted in a proposal from Lord Mandelson, who plans to disconnect alleged file sharers without any judicial process.

Tomorrow the exact text of the bill is expected to be made public, but according to early reports, the legislation will open all doors for a digital police state where alleged pirates will be crucified by private companies.

Judging from some of the plans that leaked earlier today, the endless lobbying efforts of the entertainment industry by anti-piracy outfits including IFPI and the BPI have definitely paid off.

Cory Doctorow has the scoop on BoingBoing and he told TorrentFreak that the information comes from someone “very close to the Labour government” who he trusts implicitly.

If accurate, the new legislation will be a disaster for the privacy of all Internet users while giving unprecedented powers to the entertainment industry. Under the new bill the Secretary of State would be able to pass secondary legislation without Parliamentary oversight in order to protect rights holders.

Three reasons are given:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements. (for example, he could authorize jail terms for file-sharing, or create a “three-strikes” plan that costs entire families their Internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to “confer rights” for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to “impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement” (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright “militias” can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)

The leaked information mainly shows that the Secretary of State will have the power to introduce all kinds of draconian measures without Parliamentary oversight. More details on concrete policy dealing with alleged file-sharers and the proposed three-strikes system have yet to be announced.

the banksters have to corral the internet before the sheep wake up, totally predictable.

Now there's a losing battle if I've ever seen one.

Praetyre:

Now there's a losing battle if I've ever seen one.

With the wits of Rupert Murdoch, they'll surely win!

 

Jonathan M. F. Catalán:

If accurate, the new legislation will be a disaster for the privacy of all Internet users while giving unprecedented powers to the entertainment industry.

Gay...

Does anyone think this is democratic? I bet if you let people vote on IP law we'd get some interesting results.

I love how democracy only matters during elections, and the popularity of legislation like this could matter less. If you're going to have a democracy at least have one that works... I'd rather live by mob rule than by corporate rule.

Snowflake:

If you're going to have a democracy at least have one that works... I'd rather live by mob rule than by corporate rule.

Out of curiosity, would you consider Switzerland as such?

 

What is bankster and what does he have to do with this?

scineram:

What is bankster and what does he have to do with this?

the banksters are the people who own the central banks of Europe and the Federal Reserve, the IMF and the World Bank.  some believe that through their monopolistic control of the money supply of the western world that they can actually control the governments of these countries.  interestingly, even though it can be shown that this banking monopoly is a scheme to unjustly transfer wealth from the middle class to the absurdly wealthy, no politician, other than Ron Paul, ever suggests dismantling it, which tends to indicate that politicians know who owns them.

but everyone knows that all this is just silly conspiracy theory.

Praetyre:

Now there's a losing battle if I've ever seen one.

I agree with that.

But as I've always said the whale's most dangerous when it's mortally wounded and thrashing about in the water: the Italian government tried to block off Pirate Bay and other "file sharing" sites earlier this year with a particular (and, I assume, very expensive) software. It took "hackers" four hours to utterly defeat it. The initiative got very little coverage in the press but it's suspected that, as in the now famous Pirate Bay scandal, the US Department of Commerce had a hand in it.

You've got to love Disney Company's candor in times like this: when one of their chief executives was asked why the company is investing so heavily in child-oriented music these days he answered "we can spend as much money we can on copy-protection software but we'll always be defeated by a bunch of university students. That's the truth, even if nobody in the business likes it. But which self-respecting father would give his daughter a pirated Jonas Brothers CD as a present?"