UK Govt to ISPs: ‘You Have Until April ‘09 to Punish File-Sharers’

Releases new report outlining its strategy for becoming the world’s “creative hub,” and in which it warns of legislation unless ISPs voluntarily adopt anti-piracy measures.

Last Friday the UK govt released a new report that outlines its strategy for becoming the world’s “creative hub,” whereby the local economies in its biggest cities are “driven by creativity.”

It makes an interesting leap in traditional creative copyright arguments in that it begins with the premise that the UK is a place of “…writers and artists, directors and designers, musicians, comedians and craftspeople (that) light up the lives of people around the world.” It then highlights these “creative industries” and how they have apparently grown twice as fast as the rest of the economy(7% of GDP).

It is for this contribution to the economy that the govt argues that it is necessary to “…move (it) from the margins to the mainstream of economic and policy thinking, as we look to create the jobs of the future.” Moving it to the so-called mainstream of economic and policy making means simply that it will more closely monitor laws and regulations that protect “creative industries,” namely copyright enforcement and intellectual property rights.

All this will mean for the average person is that creative works will get further stifled by DRM protection and fair use laws as the govt tries to transform creative works into an industry unto itself. Communications between individuals will thereby have to be regulated in order to protect this industry from theft, as though thoughts and ideas are commodities unto themselves like coal or gold. They are certainly as valuable as such, but is it not a slippery slope when corporate interests are allowed to regulate and monitor ones communications or to govern the essence of man – creativity – the very trait that makes us human?

The PM envisions Britain in ten years’ time as a country “…where the local economies in our biggest cities are driven by creativity,” but can it really flourish if ISPs and others are allowed to filter creativity for unauthorized uses?

The report ironically noted that the UK has more content producers than distributors, but that “…content distributors (studios, record labels, publishers) are bigger and more powerful than content creators,” and that “As a result,
distributors capture much of the value that producers of creative content generate.” So if the distributors have been “capturing”(a term which belies the thieves that they usually are) much of the value of creative content over the years then why doesn’t the UK govt focus on the studios, record labels, publishers, etc. who are responsible for such a lopsided arrangement as part of the “creative industries” that it claims to care so much about?

Until the UK govt realizes that the music and other entertainment industries no doubt responsible for its sudden impetus to become the world’s “creative hub” are also part of the problem. It’s iron grip-like control of content distribution over the years has enriched it immensely at the expense of its creators. To allow it to gain access to distribution control mechanisms of the future should be scary not only for citizens, but for artists as well.

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1. UK Govt Wants ISPs to Crack Down on Illegal File-Sharing
2. UK Copyright Group Wants File-Sharers Disconnected, ISPs Say No
3. Japanese ISPs to Ban File-Sharers from the Internet
4. European Parliament Rejects Plan to Disconnect File-Sharers
5. UK Govt Thinking “Evolves,” Will Disconnect File-Sharers After All