UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from The Great Debate UK:
Who benefits from a file-sharing crackdown?
- Andrew Robinson is the leader of the Pirate Party UK. The opinions expressed are his own.-
Draconian penalties for file sharing were threatened by the government on Tuesday. In addition to the previously announced 50,000 pound maximum penalty for "IP offences" we are now told that whole families are to be disconnected from the net if just one member is accused of sharing files.
Leaving aside the obvious injustice of this proposal and the fact that our court service which handled 2.1 million cases last year is not going to be able to handle the 4.9 million extra cases that the government's stated target of a 70 percent reduction in Britain's 7 million file sharers would would necessitate, I think we should also consider who stands to benefit from this proposed crackdown.
There are two major ways that the general public currently access copyrighted content without paying the rights holders. One is through file sharing, where information is freely shared for no financial gain, and the public participate in what is effectively a giant library where even the rarest snipped of music or least appreciated TV show is altruistically preserved for posterity.
The other is through the purchase of counterfeit CDs and DVDs, where organised criminals exploit the work of others for financial gain, and tend to concentrate their efforts on solely on the latest blockbuster hits.
Inexplicably, the government are prepared to trample over all semblance of natural justice in order to stamp out the former, while completely ignoring the latter. The inevitable consequence of this is that people will switch from file sharing to buying counterfeit products, which is a seemingly trivial offence with no history of incurring terrifying penalties.
These measures will not help the preservation of our culture, or win votes for the Labour party, or boost the media industry's profits. The actual beneficiaries of the file sharing crackdown will be inevitably be the organised criminal gangs producing counterfeit goods.
Cutting off the music file-sharers
Repeat offenders who persist in illegally downloading music from file-sharing sites such as Limewire could be blocked from accessing the Web under government proposals.
“Technology and consumer behavior is fast-changing and it’s important that Ofcom has the flexibility to respond quickly to deal with unlawful file-sharing,” says Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms.
Opponents of the idea are more succinct. They say cutting people off is unnecessary and potentially illegal. Human rights have been invoked.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, they say, has been successfully leaned on by lobbyists for the creative industries whose products are being hijacked.
The music industry, which is losing millions through illegal downloads, is naturally pleased. The industry body UK Music says: “UK Music is pleased that Government is proposing accelerated and proportionate action to meet their stated ambition of reducing illegal file-sharing by 70-80% within 2-3 years.”
What do you think? Is there a case for such drastic measures?
Related blog: Who benefits from a file-sharing crackdown?
Would you vote for the Pirate Party?
The Pirate Party, which originated in Sweden, is now a registered political party in Britain and set to run candidates in the next general election. Its aim is to reform copyright law, abolish the patent system and ensure privacy rights for all citizens.
The party, with branches in more than 25 countries, argues that file-sharing and peer-to-peer networking should be encouraged rather than criminalized, based on the idea that “the Internet could become the greatest public library ever created.”
Combatting levels of surveillance and control put in place by governments in response to the 9/11 attacks in New York are also top of the agenda.
The party wants to introduce an alternative to pharmaceutical patents throughout Europe that it says will save on drug costs to governments.
Would you vote for the Pirate Party in a general election?
Hey, any info on a branch in the US? All I could find was an out of date website that seems to be down all the time…thanks.
Pirate Bay verdict: What do you think?
Four Swedish men linked to The Pirate Bay, a huge free file-sharing website, have each been jailed for a year for breaching copyright and ordered to pay the equivalent of 2.4 million pounds in compensation.
The Pirate Bay allows users to post music, movies, computer games and other files which other people can then download for free, thus depriving entertainment companies and artists of royalties. The website does not store the files themselves but does provide links so that users can find them somewhere else.
Following the landmark case, analysts said the guilty verdict could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues but they questioned whether it would do much to stop web users illegally downloading files.
The men linked to The Pirate Bay were charged last year with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences but denied the charges. They described the outcome of the trial as “bizarre”.
What do you think of the guilty verdict? Was the court right to jail and fine the men? Was it an important step in protecting copyrighted materials against illegal downloads, or was it unfair considering that no such material is stored on The Pirate Bay’s servers and no actual swapping of files takes place on the site?
The PirateBay said:
we’re going to do a video streaming site. It’s true. It’s in the works being done right now and as usual we put a bit of Pirate Bay mentality behind every project we do.
Is file-sharing morally wrong?
A woman who shared a pinball game online has been ordered to pay 16,000 pounds in compensation and legal costs to its creator.
The Patents County Court in London ruled in favour of TopWare Interactive, a U.S. computer game developer that said she had infringed its copyright.
The case is the latest attempt by the entertainment industry to try to protect its music, games and films from growing threat of online piracy, which it says is killing business.
Quicker Internet connections have sparked a boom in people swapping music, films or TV programmes.
The Recording Industry Association of America says file sharing has hit profits, put songwriters out of work and made it harder for new bands to get a contract.
“The crime is theft,” it says on its website. “Everyone who makes, enjoys or earns a living in music is hurt.”
File sharers hotly dispute that argument.
Though I have not had the time to read all the comments here, I think I get the jist of what many of you are saying…same say that since we don’t downlaod books, video games, dvdes, or computer softwear for free, why should that be okay for music? Others say that downlaoding is like lending a friend a book or a video game and that’s not illegal is it? The truth is though that musicians need to put food on their plates. And being a musician myself, it scares me to think about the way the industry is headed. In the comment from Ransack Productions, they stated “Most people understand that major record labels will loss but feel that their artists wouldn’t loss because they make their monies off of tours shows, and other marketable commodities with in the music industry that they can capitalize on” but hoenstly, tours and merch wont pay the bills. Unless you are completly DIY (which is hard to get noticed and gain a fan base) you are going to need a record company to help you out with some cash flow. But what most people don’t know is that they expect you to repay that money back, which comes from touring and soemtimes merch. When people attain music for free they are taking valuble money away from those bands that do infact need to repay those record companies. I think in the end this will cause good music to suffer. All those young kids that want to play in bands will soon realize there is no money in the industry (untill we find a way around this) which in turn will cause many potential musicians to turn other ways to support themselves.
So, I don’t know if I would saying the act of downlaoding is morally wrong (like theft or what not) but I think technology has come back to bite us in the ass. We did this to ourselves. And I think it sucks. Untill we find a new way around this mess…the future of the music industry is looking pretty gloomy.
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The Wall
Over four years ago I wrote several pieces regarding the issue of filesharing. At the time, the RIAA and MPAA were only just beginning to show their teeth in what has now evolved into a series of deliberate and concerted international efforts on several fronts to restrict and effectively shut down the free flow of digital information on the Internet.
You can read the article that ties those pieces together – a little prophetic with hindsight – at the address below:
Filesharing – The New Economy of Community
http://bit.ly/zFS0D
The time for Internet users and workers at Internet Service Providers to unite and fight back against regressive and repressive legislation has arrived.