By Chris Williams for The Register. This
story has been reproduced with permission.
Lord Triesman, the minister for intellectual property, said that
if ISPs can't agree a voluntary scheme with the music and film
industries by the end of summer, he will press Gordon Brown to
introduce legislation in the next Queen's speech.
It's the first time Triesman has put a public timescale on the
threat he made last autumn to bypass
self-regulation.
The minister was speaking
at the launch of the government consultation on new copyright
exceptions following 2006's wide-ranging Gowers Review of
intellectual property in the UK.
Triesman emphasised that the government speaks with one voice on
illegal filesharing. "We're not prepared to see the kinds of damage
that will be done to the creative economy," he said.
We asked one well-placed record industry insider whether he
thought there would be a bargain by the end of summer. "What do you
think?" was his rhetorical response.
A spokesman for ISPA, the internet providers' trade association,
told us today that it has had "good meetings" with film rights
owners and remains committed to working with "responsible rights
holders" on copyright infringement. It refused to put any time
frame on when any resolution might be reached, however.
If a joint settlement to monitor and cut off persistent
copyright infringers isn't signed voluntarily, legislation imposing
rules would likely be rubber-stamped by MPs.
The Conservative leader David Cameron has revealed strong
sympathies with rights holder grievances over ISP attitudes to
filesharing. In a speech to the
BPI in July (pdf), he compared the issues to the clampdown on
online paedophilia, and his party could be expected to vote with
the government.
In an interview with The Register following his
speech, Lord Triesman renewed his warning. He said: "There is no
objective reason why they [rights holders and ISPs] cannot arrive
at an agreement. Whether they have the will to do so is another
matter."
"If we're not really getting anywhere I will be advocating using
the first available opportunity [to legislate]. We are beginning to
think about the character of what needs to be done."
He also revealed that the UK government is working with the
French on their
anti-infringement legislation - measures which Nikolas
Sarkozy promised in his presidential manifesto.
The proposed laws create an enforcement body that French ISPs
will turn over filesharing data to. The "three strikes" system will
see infringers disconnnected if they don't sign and stick to a
promise not to share copyright material.
Triesman said: "The French are plainly very serious about this,
it's really interesting. We will actually do quite a lot of work
alongside them - not neccessarily to reach exactly the same
objective, but I think we've got a desire to share evidence and
analyses. There's no point repeating each other's research."
He added that the French were enthused to draft their laws after
meetings with British officials.
Whether Lord Triesman will be a member of the government at
crunch time for illegal filesharers on this side of the Channel is
a matter of speculation. The former communist activist
was recently rumoured to be preparing to jump ship, to become
the first independent chairman of the Football Association.
© The Register
2008
