In the UK, a Plan To Criminalize Illegal Downloaders

It looks like the launch of the UK Pirate Party came not a moment too soon. The Independent reports that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is going to take a hard-line stance to preserve copyright after intense lobbying by the music and film industry. 'Under the proposed laws, Ofcom, the industry regulator, would be given powers to require Internet service providers to collect information on those who downloaded pirate material. The data would be anonymous, but serious repeat infringers would be tracked down through their computer ID numbers.' Prospective punishments included restricting internet access, either slowing down an offender's broadband or disconnecting them altogether, and fines up to £50,000. The Pirate Party came out against the scheme, calling it a gross invasion of civil liberties, while Tom Watson, the former minister for digital engagement, spoke out against the move, saying that the government should stop trying criminalize downloaders just so as to 'restore 20th-century incumbents to their position of power,' but should instead be 'coming up with interventions that will nurture 21st-century creative talent

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08...al-Downloaders

I've already had my broadband capped before for downloading too much.

Same old really.

I download TV shows and animé from hosts such as Rapidshare and MegaUpload... Hopefully that isn't what they will consider illegal, just movies, videogames and music.

Same difference really. It's all copyrighted material you've aquired and not paid for in the eyes of the law.

How they're going go about this, I have no idea unless they put the screws on ISPs to be more self-governed. Even then can you really know if a customer is using P2P legitimately or not? I would imagine you'd have to download loads to get a £50,000 fine. Or get very unlucky :(

Fair usage policies probably prevent some users from downloading vast amounts due to the inevitable throttling that occurs.

Sounds kind of heavy handed to me, not to mention how much it all might cost but on the flipside, if I was a TV producer or anime production company I'd probably be happier if people paid for my work rather than just grabbing off the net simply because they can. After all we all have to earn our living and all that.

Just for the record, Virgin Media throttle you if you have a heavy usage between 9AM-9PM, after that your bandwidth consumption is irrelevant to Virgin.

I got throttled very heavily, they left me with next to nothing at these times.

im on virgin media, luckily theres not much i want to download these days, although i do love to download the USA programs before they show in UK