Following on from this week’s insistence from Comcast Corporation that it is not blocking certain peer-to-peer (P2P) content (from the likes of BitTorrent) from passing through its online network, the British government is currently deliberating on whether it should seek legislation to prohibit illegal file sharing.
UK authorities look to ISPs to curb illegal P2P file sharing ahead of possible move to introduce legislation. Credit: Microsoft.
A BBC News report offers that Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has commented on the BBC’s iPM programme that IP (intellectual property) theft will not be tolerated in any form. Lord Triesman has also said that, if a solution cannot be provided voluntarily by Internet service providers (ISPs) taking a more active stance regarding PSP file sharing, the government "will legislate."
"For the most part I think there are going to be successful voluntary schemes between the creative industries and ISPs," commented Lord Triesman regarding current discussions being held between ISPs and representatives from the music industry. "Our preferred position is that we shouldn’t have to regulate."
It is worth noting that Lord Triesman stressed the government had absolutely no compulsion to develop and use file-share tracking technology in order to begin "hounding 14-year-olds who shared music," but rather to clamp down severely on those individuals illegally sharing content in a commercial sense.
The technology needed to track the illegal spread of copyrighted intellectual property (in this case music) would see the government able to "match the data banks of that music to music going out and being exchanged on the net," explained Lord Triesman before outlining that a lack of action on the matter could tragically kill off those creative artists unable to earn a living as a result of illegal file sharing.
Geoff Taylor, CEO of the British Phonographic Institute, has welcomed the government’s view that ISPs should work closely with the BPI in order to "tackle the problem of internet privacy, or else face legislation." Taylor has also said the BPI is "hopeful" that ongoing talks with the ISP community can prove beneficial to the entire digital marketplace.
However, regarding Lord Triesman’s prospective technological requirements for tracking illegal file sharing, the Internet Service Providers Association has said that, while it "does not support abuses of copyright and intellectual property theft," ISPs exist as conduits and cannot be held responsible for illegal P2P file sharing.
A spokesman outlined that ISPs are simply not able to monitor or record every piece of information being passed across their networks, and that any introduced "data protection legislation actually prevents ISPs from looking at the content of the packets."
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