Digital Britain threatens to throttle file sharers

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 16 Jun 2009 at 16:15

The Government's long-awaited Digital Britain report has been released, threatening legal action and bandwidth restriction for repeat file sharers.

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

"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," it adds.

The report claims that illegal downloads cost the UK music industry £180m each year, while the UK TV and film industry loses £152m. It suggests that 70 to 80% of these downloads must be stopped, in order to protect creative industries in the UK.

With this in mind, it proposes a "framework that encourages the growth of legal markets for downloading that are inexpensive, convenient and easily accessible for consumers."

This carrot is backed up with the stick of legal action and reduced bandwidth for the "hard core of users who wilfully continue unlawful activity".

The Government says it will make it "easier and cheaper" for rights holders to take civil action against file sharers.

What's more, it will "place an obligation on ISPs to maintain records of the most frequent offenders, which would allow rights holders to take targeted legal action against these infringers."

Finally, ISPs will be roped in to protect copyright material, restricting bandwidth to known filesharers, and even blocking access to certain protocols entirely.

The Digital Britain report was commissioned in October 2008, with former Ofcom boss Lord Carter being drafted in to compile it.

Earlier this month he announced that he would be stepping down as Communications Minister, and returning to the private sector.