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18 Aug 2008 Becky Hogge copyright

Help ORG respond to UK consultation on illicit p2p

Last month, the Government announced it would be consulting with the public on ways to curb illicit filesharing. ORG will be developing a response to the consultation over the next two months and we’d like your help.

We’ve put the Executive Summary of the consultation document online. Please use our interactive consultation tool to tell us what you think of the Government’s options for combating illicit filesharing. The Government’s “preferred” option is to have codes of practice designed by ISPs and rightsholders in collaboration with OfCom, which oblige ISPs to take action against subscribers to their network believed to infringing copyright over p2p. This includes taking action against “repeat infringers”, although the document is short on detail about what such action might entail. Several other options are outlined:

  • Option A1: Streamlining the existing process by requiring ISPs to provide personal data relating to a given IP address to rights holders on request without them needing to go to Court.
  • Option A2: Requiring ISPs (by law) to take direct action against users who are identified (by the rights holder) as infringing copyright through P2P
  • Option A3: Allocating a third party body to consider evidence provided by rights holders and to direct ISPs to take action against individual users as required, or to take action directly against individual users.
  • Option A4: Requiring that ISPs allow the installation of filtering equipment that will block infringing content (to reduce the level of copyright infringement taking place over the internet) or requiring ISPs themselves to install filtering equipment that will block infringing content.

Options A3 and A4 mirror developments in other countries in Europe, such as the Olivennes Bill in France, or court cases in Belgium and Ireland brought by rightsholders to compel ISPs to install filtering equipment. Click here to leave your comments on the Government’s options for dealing with illicit filesharers. You can download the full text of the consultation document here [pdf].