Government unveils processes to cut off illegal peer-to-peer music file-sharers with controversial Digital Economy Bill

The Government has unveiled the processes by which illegal peer-to-peer music file-sharers would be harshly dealt with under the new Digital Economy Bill. Illegal file-sharing on the Internet has been a major concern for the entertainment industries, in that the royalties have been affected by the unauthorised sharing of copyright material without the right-holders’ consent. The Digital Economy Bill aims to set up a framework to crack down hard on the wrong-doers.

Under the Bill, the rights holder would submit a copyright infringement report with evidence to the infringer’s Internet service provider. The ISP would then inform the user of this and provide details of how to lawfully obtain copyright material. The ISP may also need to tell the infringer that his details can be revealed and that this may lead to legal proceedings being taken against him. The ISP would also need to provide a serious infringers list to the rights holder so that the rights holder could obtain a court order for the user’s details if necessary. Meanwhile, the rights holder cannot require the ISP to take technical measures against the infringer to slow down their Internet access speed (so as to make it hard to be involved with peer-to-peer file-sharing), but instead the Government could require ISPs following advice from Ofcom (the communications regulator) to take technical measures against serious offenders.

Meanwhile, the Bill imposes various obligations on Ofcom:

• To approve a code of practice made by ISPs.
• To deal with infringement disputes involving ISPs, subscribers and rights holders.
• To provide reports to the Government on the amount of copyright infringement and actions taken by rights holders.
• To create a code of practice dealing with ISPs’ obligations to impose technical measures against serious offenders.

Paul Gershlick, a Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and editor of www.Upload-IT.com, comments: ‘This Bill, if passed, would give some serious teeth to the entertainment industry to try to enable them to boost their revenue streams once more. However, whether or not it will work in practice remains to be seen. It may also prove to be controversial if innocent people’s Internet access will be cut off (which could happen when the unlawful use may have been by one householder and the rest are collectively punished, or when people’s Internet connections are used by third parties without their knowledge), especially as Internet access is becoming thought of as a fundamental human right.’