UK Govt Invites Public to Comment on Plans to Fight P2P

[Jorge]

Gives until October 30th for individuals and organizations to voice their opinions on proposed partnership between ISPs and copyright holders to combat illegal file-sharing.
Many have been troubled, myself included, over recent news that UK ISPs and copyright holders have agreed to a voluntary plan in which Internet subscribers will face yet to be determined sanctions for illegal file-sharing.
The Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) helped broker the deal whereby the UK's six largest ISPs - BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB, and Carphone Warehouse - all agreed to combat P2P piracy on behalf of copyright holders like the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), who has been the most vocal on the issue.
The only thing that remains now is for ISPs and copyright holder groups to draw up a code of practice on how they propose to deal with copyright infringements, and the government will then consider how this can be backed with legislation.
Enter BERR which has now announced a three-month consultation period in which individuals and organizations can comment on a number of proposed regulatory options to address the problem of illegal file-sharing.

Read Full Article Here

[dave-o99]

Here's what i sent him:

Mike,

Having read that you are inviting comments from the public on the recent
P2P fighting plans, here are mine.
I am writing as an individual.

First, these plans are an invasion of privacy. It's clear that high
usage subscribers are likely to be tagged for investigation. This
investigation is certain to invade privacy. Many users have high
bandwidth requirements without being pirates; for example those who buy
games or movies by digital download. The proposal to share a user's
private information with a third party is no different to a postman
opening and reading someone's mail. Whether this falls foul of the DPA
is still to be discovered (and i have no doubt that there will be large
cases on these grounds), but it is without doubt an invasion of privacy
that would seem more fitting in a world such as that of George Orwell's
1984.

Secondly, the plans will be impossible to implement successfully.
Firstly, serious pirates will start using encryption, so the most
damaging users will not even be affected. Secondly, average users will
become angered by this intrusion, and take their business elsewhere.
Even were all UK ISPs to sign up (this will never happen without
government legislation which forces them to), people would simply look
to another country (e.g. Sweden) who have less totalitarian laws and
guidelines in the area. UK businesses will lose money, and smaller ISPs
who have their hand forced will go out of business.

The proposals will benefit no-one (serious pirates will find a way
around, occasional pirates will simply not bother to get the material by
any means), and will harm many.

In case it wasn't clear, i am against the proposals.

I hope my words will be considered.

Regards,

A concerned UK internet user.