The Government and the Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) are
consulting on the plans, which would allow Magistrates' Courts in
England and Wales to issue summary fines of £50,000 for online
copyright infringement.
The larger fine is proposed for commercial scale infringements,
where the person involved profits from the infringement.
The plan would implement another of the recommendations of the
Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, the 2006 report by former
Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers which has been the foundation
of intellectual property policy since its publication.
"This consultation takes forward Gowers Review recommendation
36, which recommended matching penalties for online and physical
copyright infringement by increasing sanctions for online
infringements," said the UK-IPO in a statement.
A report called 'Creative Britain' published by the Government's
business, culture and innovation departments earlier this year also
called for an increase in the maximum fines available to
Magistrates Courts for online copyright infringement.
Gowers said in his report that online commercial infringement
could not be as severely punished as commercial infringement in the
offline world.
"Several submissions have called for a change in the law to
increase online infringement penalties to the levels of physical
infringement," he said in his report. "The intention and impact of
physical and online infringement are the same. Crimes committed in
the online and physical world should not be subject to different
sentences. Increasing the penalties for online infringement will
therefore make the law more coherent."
The UK-IPO said in its consultation paper that the change in the
fines available to courts would allow them to better combat
commercial scale infringement.
"Our investigations concluded that introducing exceptional
summary maxima fines would allow magistrates’ courts to deal
effectively with copyright offences as they would be able to award
fines that took account of the illegal profits made from such
offences," said the paper.
The courts in Scotland and Northern Ireland operate differently
from those in England and Wales, and there is no equivalent
sentencing guideline system there, but the consultation suggests
that those courts could still implement maximum fines.
"The court structures in Scotland and Northern Ireland differ
from those in England and Wales, but exceptional statutory maxima
could be introduced for summary courts in Scotland and Northern
Ireland as for England and Wales," it said.
The consultation is open until 31 October.
