Britain’s Latest Internet Laws – How Do You Stand?
Heavy fines and loss of internet connection are just two ways you could be penalised if anyone on your computer or network is found to be downloading files that breach copyright regulations. American readers contacted me outraged at what they see as the government limiting our freedom in the UK, following an article on the popular technology website Boingboing about the recent Digital Economy Bill. I promised no more acronyms today so I refuse to call it DEB!
It came as no surprise to me to hear that users can lose internet connection if they illegally share files, or even if anyone in their home or organisation has been doing this without their knowledge. A TV documentary months ago showed how filesharing can easily be tracked, and my own internet provider had decided to cut off connection for anybody doing this. I can’t say I minded and in fact I was pleased. The documentary worried my own teenagers and they have since resisted the temptation to download free versions of expensive software from sites their friends were recommending. No more worries about them secretly getting dodgy downloads that could damage the computer.
What this new bill does show is that you need to be aware of what is being downloaded to your computer or network. I need a top level connection for broadcasting work I’m involved in and only my ISP can provide it, so if we had been found guilty of filesharing it would have been disastrous for my work. This can easily happen due to somebody downloading files without your knowledge, or due to hackers using your network in order to hide their own identity.
If your network is used the penalty will affect you rather than the hacker, and with fines of ?50,000 for filesharing, plus the risk of losing internet connection and having websites blocked, these new laws are to be taken seriously. Internet Service Providers who don’t take the necessary steps to investigate and find breaches in copyright can be fined ?25,000, so we’re likely to see more action taken against this kind of offence.
The Boingboing article stirred up controversy but is it a fair view of the internet in the UK, and the validity of these laws? The journalist sees these regulations as targeting the entertainment industry, and protecting copyright in this field, but surely this also protects other types of software download.
The article accuses Peter Mandelson, who is responsible for the Bill, because it doesn’t include measures to stimulate the digital economy by ‘ensuring that broadband is cheap, fast and neutral’ and also to get ‘Britain’s poorest connected to the net’. It also states that copyright rules shouldn’t get in the way of entrepreneurship and the ‘freedom to create new things’, because schoolchildren should freely be able to use the publicly-funded media such as the main television channels.
It’s always interesting to hear a view of a country we live in voiced by journalists overseas. I would have thought children already benefit from free access to the main television channels here, that internet is available very cheaply to the poorer members of the community (in fact it’s probably the cheapest thing we can do at home for entertainment and education if there isn’t enough money to go out, and lottery-funded computers are available in public libraries), and that the level of broadband service is higher than that experienced by many of my American contacts. What do you think?
GEID | Technology
Glenn O’Brien
http://www.geid.co.uk
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