The Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software
(FAST IiS), which promotes the legitimate use of software, has
launched a stinging attack on the Digital Britain report and on the
way the music industry has approached the threat of digital
piracy.
“The entertainment sector appear to have lobbied the Government
to consider establishing a ‘pirates tax’ on all of us as well as
yet another quango to oversee it, meaning more cost, and more
hassle," said FAST IiS chief executive John Lovelock.
FAST IiS said that the Government should protect all digital
industries equally, and not give special treatment to one.
"FAST IiS is urging the Government to commit itself to
‘joined-up’ government and consider all forms of digital content
when investigating changing the law and legal approach to digital
content theft," said a statement from the organisation.
"FAST IiS contend that the Government’s interim ‘Digital
Britain’ report investigating the state of the digital economy has
failed to approach the issue of intellectual property rights in a
coherent way; and until the government works with all the digital
content providers representative bodies any attempts to legislate
in favour of any one particular sector is not only unfair but also
seriously misguided," it said.
The Digital Britain report said that the Government would pass
laws forcing internet service providers (ISPs) to gather
information about record label-identified illegal file-sharers and
to pass on that information under court order.
It also said that ISPs will be forced to notify illegal
file-sharers that their conduct is against the law. The plans
stopped short of a demand that ISPs disconnect offending users.
"All digital content is equal before the law and so too should
be all digital industries. A piecemeal approach will confuse
digital consumers, both the public and businesses, will muddy the
legal framework and will therefore ultimately impede Britain’s
success in the new digital economy of the twenty-first century,"
said Lovelock.
“Put bluntly we all need this sector to be working effectively
and fairly. Favouritism is not going to help ailing business
methods, and making all consumers face a ‘broadband tax’ to cover
the few that steal content smacks of cynical revenue protection,”
said Lovelock.
The Digital Britain report proposed a new rights agency to work
to protect copyrighted content, and suggested that it be funded by
industry. This has led some commentators to conclude that a 'tax'
will be levied on broadband connections.
FAST IiS said that its industry had changed the way it conducted
its business to deal with the challenges of piracy and that the
entertainment industries should do the same.
"Over the past decade the software industry has evolved to
become more user focused and ever more adaptable to changing market
conditions. The right to use software, that is to say licensing,
has evolved from ‘single instance’, ‘per user’ and ‘site’
licences to encompass Application Service Provision,
Software-as-a-Service, Pay-As-You-Go and so on," said Lovelock.
"I think it’s time that [the entertainment] industries came up
to speed in the modern market and changed their business models to
encourage their customers to use the internet for their
purchasing," he said.
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