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UPD Ed Vaizey Criticises BT and TalkTalk Opposition to UK Internet Piracy Laws

Posted: 05th Jul, 2011 By: MarkJ
p2p copyright uk ISP file sharing lawpirate flagThe UK Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, has criticised two of the country's largest internet providers (ISP) , BT and TalkTalk , for having "fallen at every hurdle" with their repeated attempts to oppose the governments tough new stance against internet copyright infringement (piracy).

The Court of Appeal recently threw out an attempt by both ISPs to appeal an earlier rejection of their Judicial Review against the controversial Digital Economy Act (here). BT is also in a separate legal fight with the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which wants to force ISPs into blocking websites that facilitate piracy (here).

The UK Comms Minister, Ed Vaizey, told the Intellect 2011 Conference (V3):

"The attitude of the ISPs is quite odd. BT has spent so much time litigating against an act of parliament and fallen at every hurdle, which is a great endorsement of the work officials did in putting the Act together.

There are prominent web sites that stream live football or sell movies without permission from rights holders, and we should look at ways of stopping them. No-one is saying business models don't have to change, but that doesn't mean you sit back and let people rip off other people's content."

At the same time Rights Holders and UK broadband providers are still working towards the establishment of a new Voluntary Code of Practice for blocking any site that is deemed to "facilitate" online piracy (here), although ISPs have yet to endorse any of the proposals. Fears over costs and the need for legal protection remain significant stumbling blocks.

On top of that ISPs are unable to completely block such content because related filters can be circumvented, usually with ease. Another significant concern is with the Rights Holders apparent desire to block websites that most would consider to be legitimate, such as the Internet Archive (archive.org), BitTorrent's corporate page and cyberlockers (online file storage and sharing services) like RapidShare. Mission creep is a risky business.

Indeed Rights Holders have long viewed search engines like Google and video sharing websites, such as YouTube, with almost equal distain. As a result it's easy to see why ISPs would want a robust system of independent court approvals before adopting any such system. Allowing Rights Holders the flexibility to block any website they please would put far too much power into the hands of easily abused commercial interests.

UPDATE 6th July 2011

V3 also has a quote from Virgin Media UK.

The CEO of Virgin Media, Neil Berkett, said:

"Site blocking is a possible part of the solution, but it's not the solution. How do we go about making sure it's the right site that's being blocked and ensure we have a regime that means if a site has to be blocked, everybody blocks it?.

We have to do more to convince people that stealing is wrong when many people don't see it as such. Beating them over the head with a stick is not a good start. We need to encourage people to change their behaviour."

It's likely that ISPs will accept some degree of site blocking in the future, in fact we'd be very surprised if they didn't. However it is important that any such system should be properly regulated, thus allowing any block to be examined by an independent judge prior to approval. A clear, rigorous and impartial appeals process should also be put in place.
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