The UK will follow France's controversial lead to create a three strikes rule to battle illegal file sharing.
Speaking at a conference run by the Creativity and Business International Network (C&binet), business secretary Peter Mandelson said: "I was shocked to learn that only one in 20 music tracks in the UK is downloaded legally. We cannot sit back and do nothing."
However, Mandelson also confirmed Culture Minister Ben Bradshaw's statement last week that file sharers would not be cut off "willy nilly".
"Technical measures will be a last resort and I have no expectation of mass suspensions resulting," Mandelson said.
Those illegally sharing files will first be sent an indefinite stream of warning letters, telling them to knock it off. If they don't, the owner of the content will be allowed to take legal action, with appeals going through Ofcom.
If those two steps aren't enough, the file sharer faces being disconnected by their ISP and being added to a "serious infringer list." However, disconnections won't happen until at least 2011.
Mandelson also called on industry to step up to help solve the issue of illegal file sharing by offering cheaper content that's easy enough to download. Mandelson has previously been accused of being too close to the music industry.
He also said that copyright laws needed to be sorted out, so people would be able to share content such as music with friends and family.
Opposition
The head of Open Rights Group Jim Killock said listening to Mandelson's speech was "very unpleasant".
"Even MI5 disagree with him they are convinced we will see a rise of a Dark Net' of infringers," he wrote on the ORG blog. "Nobody at C&binet from an online music service, as opposed to an old media company, thought that P2P was a threat to their businesses."
"Yet Mandelson seems determined to push forward with his plans for three strikes' threatening to punish people extremely harshly, threatening their education, businesses and livelihoods for a relatively minor financial misdemeanour," he added. "Meanwhile, Mandelson said very little on licensing reform, the real block to the rise of legitimate online music services."
Click here to find out how copyright has fallen behind technology.
-
Small businesses are ‘flying blind’ on carbon emissions and struggling to track sustainability goalsNews Research from Wasabi shows small businesses are struggling to keep track of carbon emissions, and a key factor lies in the poor reporting from tech vendors.
-
Gestion du cloud avancée : Qu'est-ce que StreamOne® et comment la plateforme peut-elle représenter un avantage pour votre entreprise, aujourd'hui et dans le futur?Sponsored Ne vous contentez pas d'acheter le cloud, maîtrisez-le. La plateforme StreamOne® de TD SYNNEX offre une puissante approche écosystème de la gestion avancée du cloud, dépassant largement les limites d'une marketplace classique...
-
‘A huge national security risk’: Thousands of government laptops, tablets, and phones are missing and nowhere to be foundNews A freedom of information disclosure shows more than 2,000 government-issued phones, tablets, and laptops have been lost or stolen, prompting huge cybersecurity concerns.
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolen – and security experts say it won't be the lastNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
The UK cybersecurity sector is worth over £13 billion, but experts say there’s huge untapped potential if it can overcome these hurdlesAnalysis A new report released by the DSIT revealed the UK’s cybersecurity sector generated £13.2 billion over the last year
-
"Thinly spread": Questions raised over UK government’s latest cyber funding schemeThe funding will go towards bolstering cyber skills, though some industry experts have questioned the size of the price tag
-
Threat of cyber attacks to national security compared to that of chemical weaponsNews The UK government has raised the threat level posed by cyber attacks, deeming it greater on average than an event such as the Salisbury poisoning
-
2022 Public Sector Identity Index ReportWhitepaper UK Report
-
UK and Japan strike digital partnership to collaborate on IoT security, semiconductorsNews The two countries are also set to align their approaches to digital regulation to make it easier for companies to operate in each nation
-
Defra's legacy software problem 'threatens' UK gov cyber security until 2030News The department spends over two-thirds of its digital budget on maintaining the risky applications, with no plan in place for a fix within the decade
