Lords pass controversial internet piracy bill

Legislation to tackle internet piracy, including bans for illegal file-sharers, has been passed by the Lords.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8569750.stm


I just hope it doesn't get passed in the house of commons now but no doubt it will its just a shame that the government dont get that this isn't the way to go even the isp's are against this bill. Seems to me like labour are trying to rush it though just to try win a few extra votes. This bloke's quote is spot on

Andrew Robinson, from Pirate Party UK, which campaigns on the issue, said: "The public will not respect a law that was quite literally written by the record industry, for the record industry.
"As it stands, the bill is fatally flawed, and fundamentally unjust."

I can't see how this will help Labour get more votes either. Most of the public will be against this.

One again, it's our rights being restricted. If it isn't ofcom it's these idiots.

(16-03-2010 14:43 )seth Wrote:  People will just use IP hiding software and continue to download illegally.

They won't be able to download if the websites have been blocked.

(16-03-2010 14:46 )elgar1uk Wrote:  

(16-03-2010 14:43 )seth Wrote:  People will just use IP hiding software and continue to download illegally.

They won't be able to download if the websites have been blocked.

Yeah you're right. Read that again.

Presumably then every file held on any file sharing site is going to be deemed illegal then as this is the only way it will work. If a file's contents are clear from it's title then somebody somewhere might be able to tell what it is but if it's title is just say, a series of numbers who's going to check/know. There was a similar discussion on bgafd a few weeks ago about the record industry - this is my reply one or two might like to read it (it goes on a bit).

WHY THE RECORD INDUSTRY ONLY HAS ITSELF TO BLAME

The record industry has been declaring itself to be going out of business for nigh on forty years and has created a stream of mythical beasts which are devouring it. All created it seems by one body, the bpi, funded by the record companies to look after their own ends. Starting with the now legendary ’home taping is killing music’ (it missed), moving on through the late seventies and eighties declaration of war on bootlegging and ’live tapes’ (how could a record company lose money on something that wasn’t commercially available and why would someone who simply wanted the latest bowie gig have spent that £5 on a Bananarama lp if they hadn’t been able to get it.). Now we’re told that the world and his wife are downloading music illegally. As someone else said how do we know they would have bought it if they hadn’t downloaded it. How do we know that it’s kept beyond the first listen or doesn’t even get that far and is deleted off the hard drive almost immediately. After all the record companies have created a disposable market themselves. This years x factor winner will be replaced by next years and it is unlikely either will make a second or third album let alone have a twenty or thirty year career. Artists whose first or second albums don’t sell substantially don’t get to make a third there is no ’building’ of either a fan base or a career. Take for instance the zutons. First album sells ok, second even better plus valerie gets covered and sells a truckload on it’s own. Third album stiffs, probably through poor promotion by the record company, and band gets dropped. The Kaiser chiefs who had expected to take a break between their last two albums were advised not to try to crack america as their british fan base might desert them - this is a band at the stadium point in their career. Normally bands who reach that point can happily have a two year gap between albums. Rushed follow up albums ultimately lose you as many fans as you would have lost by taking a break if they are not up to the standard of their predecessor.

CD’s have become something to sell alongside baked beans in supermarkets and who the artist is doesn’t really matter to the record company it’s a product and the next one is only five minutes away. It seems strange that they allegedly show so much concern for artists suffering from the supposed stream of illegal downloads and yet don’t show the same concern when drawing up initial contracts - witness the number of lawsuits over the years due to piss poor royalty rates. And you have to wonder how they are calculating illegal downloads. Are they for example including downloads of concerts - at least two major acts happily endorse the sharing of live material on the internet and many more turn a blind eye - do they count? It’s proven very difficult - even in major bootlegging trials for the bpi to gain a conviction on copyright infringement grounds and in all cases they have settled for image or trademark based prosecutions. The record companies also make money from ever expanding reissues of previously released albums now including outtakes, dvd’s etc all at very little extra cost to themselves and with an established fan base waiting for material which when it was for instance available as a bootleg was declared to be sub-standard - how does it now turn out to be good then - oh yeah, it’s making money for them.

Things are rarely straightforward on one side or the other.I agree at first sight it does seem a somewhat draconian way of tackling the problem,but the music business is after all just that, a business and like any business it needs to make money to grow.After all you wouldn't walk into a shoe shop and help yourself to a pair of shoes without paying just because you took a fancy to them. Buying a track from a sight like i-tunes for example costs a few pence, if you dont want to pay that tou clearly dont want the music that badly. If you want a constantly evolving music scene with a plethora of genres and styles you have to be prepared to pay for it or you could end up with a music scene solely of the more commercial bland pop acts.

It says on there they could shut down sites like google and youtube, which is pathetic if that were to happen.