Digital Britain Report says is necessary to ensure “investment in content” is at “socially appropriate levels.”
Today the UK govt published its much anticipated Digital Britain Report. Launched in 2008, the project is intended to “secure the UK’s place at the front of digital and telecommunications innovation and quality.” To do this, the steering board for Digital Britain has consulted with experts within and outside of government, and broadband industry regulators.
“Digital Britain is a statement of intent and ambition, a commitment to infrastructure and access, and an overdue recognition of the Industrial importance of the Creative Industries,” said Stephen A. Carter, Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting. “”The Digital Economy is a case study in the interdependence of competitive markets, regulation, entrepreneurialism, and a strategic approach from Government.”
The report suggests a variety of policies intended to maximize the social and economic benefits from digital technologies.
Some of the Digital Britain measures include:
- Universal access to today’s broadband services by 2012
- Next Generation fund for investment in tomorrow’s broadband services
- Upgraded mobile networks
- National Plan to improve Digital Participation
- Robust legal and regulatory framework to combat Digital Piracy
It’s the latter one that’s what has many concerned most, for it involves unspecified “technical measures” to punish repeat file-sharers along with other solutions to ensure that “investment in content is at socially appropriate levels by allowing investors to fully appropriate returns on their investment.”
Some of the other solutions include making it easier for copyright holders to file civil suits against suspected illegal file-sharers, along with legislation requiring ISPs to both notify customers of illegal behavior and to require them to maintain records of the most frequent offenders.
All of this is with the apparent goal in mind of reducing illegal file-sharing by some 70%.
“The legislation would be accompanied by a Code of Practice which would include agreed standards relating to the notification process, consumer protection, standards of evidence, cost sharing, etc.,” says the report.
However, it’s interesting to note that in it’s cost-benefit analysis it admits that “there are uncertainties around the estimates of the sales displacement effect on right holders.” In other words, it’s not really sure how much more content people will buy legally if there is a crackdown on P2P. Its figures claim a £1700 million ($2.8 billion USD) benefit to copyright holders in “recovered displaced sales” if ISPs helped copyright holders fight illegal file-sharing, but there’s no way to know what the amount is. Several studies have in fact concluded the opposite is true, that P2P actually increases music consumption.
The report also estimates the annual cost to ISPs for the plan to be about £290-500 million ($476-821 million USD) annually with no mention of who’s responsible for the tab. It certainly won’t be copyright holders, and will inevitably be Internet users that get left holding the bag to protect the failed business models of copyright holders.
The report adds that the “sheer scale of P2P file-sharing means it is not practicable to take all those involved to court.” If your method of doing business is so bad that you have to resort to suing tens of millions of people, most of them likely customers, then isn’t there a much larger problem at hand?
It goes on to mention that it’s important to fight illegal file-sharing in order to make sure that there’s an “incentive to invest in new and mainstream artists.” That may be so, but does it have to be done by requiring ISPs to monitor everyone’s Internet traffic, especially when numerous credible studies have concluded it increases music consumption and therefore the “incentive to invest?”
jared@zeropaid.com
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Hahahaha, 70%? Good luck
Reducing illegal P2P by 70% or changing the amount of illegal P2P traffic to 30% of the ‘current’ amount is not likely going to happen, because, the ‘current’ amount of illegal P2P traffic is unknown and also very sensitive to calculate due to so many controversies.
Plus, it forgets the probable turn to darknets by many.
oh hey Soulxtc, long time no speak, howz it going?
well there obviously in way over their heads… I bet half of them are still trying to figure out exactly how the internet works and what P2P is… if they knew this, they wouldn’t be wasting time and resources on a hopeless battle for the last 12 years.
With every downfall arises another opportunity, which has been pointed out to company officials, from both the public and law makers alike time and time again! But they don’t want to see that so that will be to their own demise… I think that even listening to these people is a waste of time so i havn’t been keeping up with the news… Did i miss anything mutch?
The more sinister parts of this news item is buried in the details. I just read Open Rights Groups posting on the matter: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2009/06/digital-britain-closing-down-the-open-internet/
This is what’s on the table:
* Blocking (Site, IP, URL);
* Protocol blocking;
* Port blocking;
* Bandwidth capping (capping the speed of a subscriber’s Internet connection and/or capping the volume of data traffic which a subscriber can access);
* Bandwidth shaping (limiting the speed of a subscriber’s access to selected protocols/services and/or capping the volume of data to selected protocols/ services); and
* Content identification and filtering.
The Digital Britain proposal is an attempt to end the internet as we know it.
yes they do want to end the internet as we know it. The reason is simple: so far, the web has been the last bastion of real freedom, where we could escape the police state and not live in contant anxiety of being spied on by the goverment and the money makers it favours. Now, the governemt attacks the net to take away our last bit of freedom. Labour was supposed to be about real democracy. This goverment is the most disgusting we’ve had in recent history: it is control-mad and maskerades as being the opposite. And impopularity does not even stop them. In the most anti democratic way, they impose upon us despite being nearly universally despised by the electorate. Do not expect such people to do anything acceptable to the web. The worst is probably still to come. Brace yourselves.