Anti-Piracy 'action' set to begin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28374457 wrote:
People in the UK who persistently pirate music and movies will soon start getting emails warning them that their actions are illegal.

The warnings are part of a larger scheme that aims to educate people about copyright and legal ways to enjoy digital content.

Starting next year, up to four warnings annually will be sent to households suspected of copyright infringement.

But if people ignore the warnings, no further action will be taken.

The warning system is the result of four years' wrangling between internet service providers (ISPs) and industry bodies representing music and movie-makers.

The original enforcement regime was outlined in the Digital Economy Act 2010 and called for persistent pirates to have their net access cut off after a series of warnings.

'Difficult to protect'
In addition, rights holders wanted warning letters to mention the potential penalties people would face for copyright infringement and access to a database of known illegal file-sharers.

The years of talks brokered by the government have led to the creation of the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (Vcap) that uses warnings via email or post.

The UK's biggest ISPs - BT, TalkTalk, Virgin and Sky - have signed up to Vcap. Many smaller ISPs are expected to join later.

In addition, the UK government has pledged to contribute £3.5m to an education campaign that will promote legal ways to listen to music and watch movies.

Introducing the three-year educational scheme, Business Secretary Vince Cable said the initiative was all about supporting the UK's creative industries.

"It's a difficult industry to pin down and it's also difficult to protect," he said. "But unless you protect it then it's an industry that cannot function."

'Persuading the persuadable'
Government estimates suggest the UK's creative industries contribute £71bn to the UK economy and support about 1.68 million jobs.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, said it had been a "long road" to produce the Vcap agreement. He said that though it lacked punitive action it could still help bring about change in people's habits.

"It's about persuading the persuadable, such as parents who do not know what is going on with their net connection," he said.

"Vcap is not about denying access to the internet. It's about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice," he said.

As well as taking part in Vcap, the BPI and other rights holders were working on other fronts to tackle persistent pirates, file-sharing sites and to suppress the economy that supported them, said Mr Taylor.

These initiatives included issuing notices to Google about links to pirated content, action in the courts to shut down websites that offer links to infringing content, and working with advertisers to limit the funds that flow to file-sharing sites.

Derbymanc wrote:So you agree then CS that another government department should be created to send a bunch of emails to people that mean absolutely nothing???

Derbymanc wrote:Fair do's, although your first comment was hyperbole at it's best.

I'm not a great believer in massive punishments for the occasional pirate especially as a lot is probably done by kids with parents not knowing. BUT if it continues to happen and in vast quantitys (I'm not on about the odd song here and there but a continuous stream of downloading) Then you should be put on a banned list and have the internet withdrawn for a certain amount of time (Bit like what they do with small time hackers).

If you find a big operation then yup, prison sentences abound.

Just remember the next time your favourite game/comic/film series/tv series gets cancelled or your band is dropped from it's lable, part of that is due to pirating.

(Streaming is a different discussion as some things aren't available everywhere, if it is then you should be paying.)

Derbymanc wrote:Piracy,

It costs a lot of money to produce, make and distribute a film, if everybody decided sod it we'll watch it for free then eventually movies stop getting made.

Sports the same, Footballers/Boxers etc etc get paid a certain amount with money made through gate reciepts and tv rights, if everybody decided to stream them for free then what would be the point of Sky etc paying tv rights, The athletes can't be paid enough, the standards drop and we're talking (especially with boxing) why certain fights can't be made.

Common sense really.

Derbymanc wrote:Depends where your streaming them from, plus i'm not about to go trundling through reams and reams of statures.

It comes under Piracy although streaming things is a bit of a grey area unless your doing it through a site that is clearly illegal (ie the pirate bay) and has been blocked by a country.

Derbymanc wrote:As I said CS it's a bit of a grey area and the article is concentrating on DOWNLOADING.

Streaming is a difficult concept for them to sort out, I know there was a case in Germany where youtube was ordered in charge of what was on their website http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a377635/youtube-loses-court-battle-in-germany-over-music-videos.html#~oKv4fnMcv9WgvM,

Streaming is a different thing and I believe we're not to discuss it on here so if we just stick to the downloading part CS

Derbymanc wrote:Depends where your streaming them from, plus i'm not about to go trundling through reams and reams of statures.

It comes under Piracy although streaming things is a bit of a grey area unless your doing it through a site that is clearly illegal (ie the pirate bay) and has been blocked by a country.