MP: it will take two years to fix Digital Economy Act

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 28 Mar 2011 at 09:30

Q. Should copyright infringment, notably illegal file-sharing, be dealt with in the courts rather than by ISPs?

A. To be fair to the Conservative Government (as much as I’m prepared to be) it would prefer to find solutions outside regulation and the courts, to minimise regulation and expense.

In the end, the lack of recourse to courts may in the end be quite significant. It’s very hard to say – my instinct is that the Government will be very pragmatic. What’s essentially happened is the coalition understands the rights holders' point of view, and it understands the BPI – and it's [the BPI] incredibly effective at protecting its interests at the point of legislation.

Q. You think the Government is better at listening to rights holders than the other side?

A. It seems to be pretty pragmatic, so with the rights holders having won all the battles when it went through, they may now have to accept some adjustements.

With the rights holders having won all the battles when it went through, they may now have to accept some adjustements

For example, I find that – among the strong valid arguments that come from rights holders – that every download is a theft is a ludicrous argument. I don’t know why anyone would say that.

If you talk to the labels, the labels have a different perspective from the BPI. But the guys running the labels are looking two, three years ahead.

Q. After the ACS Law case, it seems IP addresses aren't as clear evidence of online activity as the Government first thought. Will the Government be able to keep using IP addresses as evidence?

A. IP addresses are quite a transient thing – it’s not like owning a car. The lawyers can take a stab, but it sounds a little bit iffy to me, in the broadest sense.

From what the lawyers [from the ACS Law case] are saying, there seems to be good reason to think that there will need to be more than IP address evidence.

It sounds to me as a layperson that it would be pretty ropey to try to secure convictions on that basis. Generally speaking, when it comes down to brass tacks, the law has a lot of common sense, so I would think the Government would have to think of more than just IP addresses.