Broadband News & Mobile Broadband News

Suspected illegal fileshares could be faced with a court order before having their broadband disconnected, according to comments made by the UK’s Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw.

There has been plenty of opposition towards the government’s plan to give more power to the music and entertainment industry which would force ISP’s to cut off the broadband connection of suspected illegal fire sharers without prior warning.

Therefore, Mr Bradshaw’s suggestion that a court order should first be used to prove a users guilt before they are disconnected is perceived to be good news.

Mr Bradshaw said, “It wouldn’t just happen on the basis of accusation. First there would need to be a court order for any of the technical measures.”

Record labels are also in agreement that warning letters should be followed up to eliminate persistent file sharing. They state that “any technical measures deemed necessary and appropriate by the Secretary of State” would be welcome to try to stop illegal downloads.

When speaking about the government’s retreat from the technical clampdown on persistent file sharers, James Alexander the Deloitte Media Partner, said it was definitely no surprise.

He said, “Perhaps this reflects that it was only intended as a shot across the bows by the government to deter people who think illegal downloading is an acceptable activity, as opposed to determined and technically adept criminals.”

Ultimately the government will determine what measures to enforce on November 18th in the Digital Economy Bill. No doubt up until that point there will be various other suggestions added as to what would be the best way to stop illegal piracy.

Karoo, the internet service provider in Hull has introduced a new policy to combat illegal broadband file sharers on its network.

The new ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy comes after it was widely reported that the company was disconnecting users suspected of piracy without any prior warning.

Such action provoked anger from the residents of Hull where Karoo is the only ISP with a near monopoly position and also the Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus.

According to reports, in order for a user to get re-connected, they were required to sign a document which admitted their guilt and also confirmed that they would not repeat the offence again.

Commenting on the new policy, the Director of Consumer and Publishing Services at Karoo, Nick Thompson said, “It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and Internet users. So, we have changed our policy to move in more line with the industry standard approach, whilst still taking the issues of copyright infringement and illegal internet activity seriously. Going forward, we will provide customers with three written notifications before their service is temporarily suspended”.

Internet piracy is a big problem within the UK and one the government has tried to cover in the recent Digital Britain Report.

Measures including bandwidth capping and site blocking, rather than actual disconnection were put forward as possible ways to help address the problem.

According to reports, the UK’s broadband internet service providers (ISP’s) will not be forced to cut off illegal file sharers as part of the final Digital Britain Report.

There has been ongoing talks into what can be done to stop persistent illegal file sharers and one option was to force broadband providers to shut down the users accounts.

Instead, there are going to be certain measures introduced in order to limit and restrict illegal file sharing. Speaking to BBC News Online, a spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Support said, “The Digital Britain Report coming out soon will build on last year’s Memorandum of understanding between content holders and ISPs to tackle illegal file sharing”.

“It is likely to include an obligation on ISPs to send out letters to people who are infringing copyright.”

The spokesperson also hinted that Ofcom would have new powers to impose ‘technical solutions’ to help stop persistent illegal file sharers.

The actual measures are set to be announced as part of the Digital Britain report due to be published on the 16th June.

There are growing calls and pressure being put upon the government to force illegal file sharers to have their broadband service cut off.

The calls come from bodies within the creative industry who ultimately want a commitment from the government to stop illegal downloads and to disconnect persistent users who have already been warned.

According to the eight bodies which represent the creative industry, more responsibility should be given to internet service providers. However, the ISP’s are reluctant to take more responsibility. They claim they do not wish to have an internet policing type role or the costs associated with it.

Currently if an ISP thinks that a user is sharing illegal files, they can write a letter to the user to warn them against doing it. This is usually enough to put that user off repeating the offence. However, this is not always the case.

The government have already tried to address the issue and earlier in the year, David Lammy, the UK’s Intellectual Property Minister said, “We can’t have a system where we’re talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms.”

However, the creative bodies are adamant that something needs to be done. As it stands the government have set a target to reduce the problem by up to 70% in the next few years. This means that it is likely that new measures will be introduced in the not so distant future to better address the problem.