[A2k] OUT-LAW News, 12/02/2008-Government will introduce ISP pirate-blocking obligation next week, says leak

[Barbara Stratton]

Government will introduce ISP pirate-blocking obligation next week, says le=
ak
OUT-LAW News, 12/02/2008=A0http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=3D8868

The Government is said to be close to publishing plans for a new law that w=
ould force internet service providers (ISPs) to trawl their networks for fi=
le sharers and ban them from using their service.

The then-minister for intellectual property Lord Triesman said in January t=
hat such legislation would be brought in the autumn if ISPs and the music i=
ndustry could not reach voluntary agreement. A leak to The Times newspaper =
has now revealed that plans for the new law will be made public next week.

The music industry, represented by the International Federation of Phonogra=
phic Industries (IFPI) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), has rec=
ently called for ISPs to monitor their networks and take action against peo=
ple who infringe their members' copyright.

File sharing of music and films without making any payment remains a growin=
g problem and music industry sales continue to fall. U2 manager Paul McGuin=
ness recently accused ISPs of profiting from the exploitation of artists' w=
ork.

The new proposal will mean that ISPs will be legally obliged to take action=
 against people it knows are engaging in file sharing. The most likely reco=
mmendation, said The Times, is that ISPs will have to monitor subscribers' =
internet use and give them two chances before disconnection.

They will be emailed once, suspended a second time and then cut off complet=
ely if they do not change their file sharing behaviour.

An estimated six million people in the UK engaged in file sharing last year=
, and could risk being cut off from the internet under the plan.

Any solution to the problem will involve identifying who is and who is not =
file sharing, a difficult technical task which some claim is impossible.

Such action has been long-rumoured, and intellectual property lawyer Kim Wa=
lker of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, told OUT-LAW Radio=
 last week that ISPs faced difficulties when contemplating a change in the =
law.

"The main risk is that if the ISP is trying to take technological measures =
to filter and identify infringing material then it loses its safe harbour d=
efence," he said, referring to the fact that ISPs are mostly not liable for=
 users' actions as long as they do not know about them.

"It is immediately giving itself actual knowledge that there is infringing =
material up there and I think that the ISPs feel that they are therefore op=
ening themselves up to potential liability as infringers," said Walker.

The move has looked increasingly likely as international pressure has mount=
ed. A Belgian court recently ordered ISP Scarlett to filter its traffic to =
stop file sharing. France will this summer trial a system by which ISPs wil=
l be forced to block users who are file sharing.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said that the content industry had tried t=
o reach agreement with ISPs, but that negotiations had broken down.

"We simply want ISPs to advise customers if their account is being used to =
distribute music illegally, and then, if the advice is ignored, enforce the=
ir own terms and conditions about abuse of the account," he said. "But desp=
ite some agreements in principle, the ISPs refuse to do this on any meaning=
ful scale."


See also:
* Copyright battle and ISPs, OUT-LAW Radio, 07/02/2008 http://www.out-law.c=
om/page-8862
* ISP told to block file-sharing in landmark case, OUT-LAW News, 06/07/2007=
 http://www.out-law.com/page-8239
* Danish court orders ISP to block Allofmp3.com, OUT-LAW News, 30/10/2006 h=
ttp://www.out-law.com/page-7432
* Yahoo! China to be sued by music industry, OUT-LAW News, 04/07/2006 http:=
//www.out-law.com/page-7069

=A9 Pinsent Masons 2000 - 2008