It said that its policy "needs" to make that much difference,
even as it came under fire from content industry bodies for not
mandating the cutting off of file-sharing internet users.
In its just-published Digital Britain report, the Government
said that most piracy will be wiped out by its plans. ISPs will be
expected to produce a code of practice outlining how and when they
will inform users of their services that they think the user has
been file-sharing unlawfully and how the ISP will share data with
the legal system.
If file-sharing is not reduced by its ambitious target, though,
the Government said that it will give telecoms regulator Ofcom
powers to force ISPs to interfere with the internet connections of
suspected file-sharers.
Those include blocking individual internet connections from
accessing certain sites or certain types of content, slowing down
connections or placing a cap on a connection's bandwidth.
"These powers should be used if, and only if, the combination of
measures set out above has been fully implemented but has not
succeeded in significantly reducing the level of unlawful
file-sharing," said the report.
The report outlined the problem and the Government's predictions
for the effectiveness of its actions.
"It is clear that the scale of unlawful activity is a major
concern for those contemplating investment in innovative content
models that rely upon any form of payment. This is unacceptable,"
it said. "The Government considers online piracy to be a serious
offence. Unlawful downloading or uploading, whether via
peer-to-peer sites or other means, is effectively a civil
form of theft. This is not something that we can condone, or to
which we can fail to respond. We are therefore setting out in this
report a clear path to addressing this problem which we believe
needs to result in a reduction of the order of 70-80% in the
incidence of unlawful filesharing."
The Government has stopped short of ordering ISPs to cut off
users who are found to have unlawfully shared files online. Record
label trade body the BPI accused the Government of 'digital
dithering' because of its refusal to adopt that policy.
"Evidence shows that the Government’s ‘write and then sue’
approach won't work," said BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor. "And
Government appears to be anticipating its failure by lining up
backstop powers for Ofcom to introduce technical measures later.
This digital dithering puts thousands of jobs at risk in a creative
sector that the government recognises as the driver of the digital
economy."
The Digital Britain report said that its approach would work.
"There is evidence that most people who receive a notification stop
unlawful file-sharing. This is backed up by survey results which
found significant numbers of people say they would stop or
significantly reduce their file-sharing activity upon receipt of a
notification," it said.
Technology lawyer Struan Robertson of Pinsent Masons, the law
firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that the Government's approach had
common sense on its side.
"Though I would be concerned if the Government was pinning all
its hopes on reducing unlawful file-sharing by the very ambitious
70%, I think its first proposals for dealing with the problem are
sensible. They at least force all serious action through the
existing courts system," he said.
"The powers it will grant Ofcom to force ISPs to interfere with
connections could be more of a worry, and there would need to be
safeguards in place to ensure that the measures are fair and
balanced," said Robertson.
The report will be the basis of Government's policy in digital
media, telecoms and information infrastructure, it said.
"Digital Britain is about giving the country the tools to
succeed and lead the way in the economy of the future," said Prime
Minister Gordon Brown. “This report shows how we will ensure we
have a world-class digital and communications infrastructure, that
we promote and protect talent and innovation in our creative
industries, that we modernise our TV and radio frameworks and
support local news."
It proposes ensuring that the whole of the UK has broadband
internet access by creating a 50p monthly tax on all telephone
landlines. This will contribute to a fund to pay for the provision
of high speed broadband across the UK, and will be topped up with
surplus cash from the BBC's fund for digital television switchover,
the report said.
The report also proposes for the first time the splitting of the
BBC's licence fee income. Some of the digital switchover surplus
will be used to fund pilots of news services in Scotland, Wales and
an English region. ITV recently announced that it would pull out of
regional news because of the cost.
The report also proposes a consultation on taking part of the
normal licence fee and handing it to independent news organisations
to provide public service news content. These could include
existing news organisations, it said. That would not happen until
the licence fee was up for renewal again, which will not be until
2013.
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