UK Government plans on filesharing: not as bad as assumed

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The Digital Britain review, and the government's response to the peer to pe=
er=20
consultation, result in the following:

ISPs will be obliged to "tackle repeated infringement". The emphasis is on=
=20
dealing with specific individuals. ISPs will be obliged to warn individual=
=20
infringers when presented with evidence of infringement. So far, content=20
owners have proven extremely bad at identifying repeat offenders, so ISPs a=
re=20
to be required to count the number of notices they send to their customers,=
=20
which can then be provided on a court order along with the user's personal=
=20
details, in order to sue serious offenders. It is believed based on=20
experience elsewhere that these measures should reduce offending by around=
=20
70%.

Ofcom, with the ISPs and content owners, will develop a Code of Practice=20
dealing with appeals, standards of evidence, cost sharing, etc. It is=20
strongly implied that ISPs will be required to disconnect users at some=20
point, else why the need for appeals? In the original consultation this was=
=20
also to look into technical options such as filtering, but it was generally=
=20
focussed on dealing with repeat offenders; hopefully if it is part of the=20
Code of Practice it will be targeted against known offenders, since the=20
government has rejected any general requirement for filtering.

So what this means is that the government has no intention of forcing ISPs =
to=20
block peer to peer software, and the intention is to warn offenders, sue th=
e=20
most serious offenders, and presumably have disconnection, filtering of the=
=20
offender's connection, or similar sanctions as a middle road, subject to=20
appeals and requiring evidence. This is probably the most we could have hop=
ed=20
for; under French law, developing peer to peer software is illegal as well =
as=20
there being arbitrary disconnections, apparently without evidence or appeal=
=20
(but I have not investigated this in detail).

Other interesting conclusions from the Digital Britain review:
=2D The communications sector is roughly the same size as the creative econ=
omy.
=2D The role of legislation is not to prop up old unsustainable business mo=
dels.
=2D They may consider taxes on blank media and/or internet connections to=20
subsidise content creation in the near future, since these appear to have=20
worked well in other countries. (IMHO this is a reasonable measure given th=
e=20
alternatives)
=2D DRM may have a role, but needs to be flexible enough to not limit the=20
customer's using content how they like. (IMHO this is a contradiction...)

URLs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7854494.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7858062.stm
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file49907.pdf
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47139.pdf
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

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