Ten year copyright jail terms

Reacting to Baroness Neville Rolfe’s announcement that the government would proceed with ten year sentences for online copyright infringement, Jim Killock said:

“We note that the minister has committed to narrowing the scope of the offence. We need to see that it relates to genuinely commercial infringements. In particular the test of prejudicially affecting the copyright holder needs to go, and a test for actual knowledge needs to be present.

“We would welcome further discussions with her and the IPO to understand how the government seeks to ensure these new sentences are not abused to threaten people whose civil copyright misdemeanours are not deserving of custodial sentences.”