UK Politician Proposes Motion Against Kicking People Off The Internet

from the some-sanity dept

Thu, Oct 15th 2009 5:55pm — Mike Masnick

While a bunch of politicians in the UK had been under the influence of entertainment industry lobbyists in believing that kicking accused (not convicted) file sharers off the internet would somehow magically bring back a working business model, at least there are some who recognize what a futile and backwards effort this would be. MP Tom Watson has put forth an "Early Day Motion" against such proposals:

That this House notes with concern the Government's proposals on file sharing which would allow rights holders to request internet service providers to disconnect for a period of time, or throttle, the internet connection of people who may be accused of copyright infringement via peer to peer networks; believes that disconnecting alleged offenders will be futile given that it is relatively easy for determined file-sharers to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection; acknowledges that illicit file-sharing only costs rights-holders money when people download infringing content in preference to buying it; further notes that identifying offenders using the Internet Protocol address of a specific machine may punish those who share a web connection; and calls on the Government to ensure that any citizen accused of illicit file-sharing is given the right to legal redress in a court of law before sanctions are imposed.

I'd even take issue with the claim that it costs rights holders money when people download instead of buy -- as there's ample evidence that such things can lead to additional purchases down the road. But, still, this is a good start, and great to see some politicians not falling for the industry's claims.

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Filed Under: peter mandelson, three strikes, tom watson, uk

8 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 6:19pm

A man with a colorful past, but mostly good at tilting at windmills. I would suspect this isn't a government motion, rather a private members motion, and one that would have a snowballs chance in heck of being anything other than air.
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- Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 7:10pm
  
  Re:
  I completely agree. But admittedly, a lot of headway was made a few months ago when Peter Mandelson met with David Geffen from Dreamworks.
  
  I think we should find a way to send Johnny Diablo out to meet with Mr. Watson and see if he can be persuaded.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 6:50pm

So, where will Tom Watson be taken for an expensive vacation and dinner, now?
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- Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2009 @ 6:57pm
  
  Re:
  maybe Gary Glitter will take him out.
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Jake, 15 Oct 2009 @ 8:04pm

I'd even take issue with the claim that it costs rights holders money when people download instead of buy -- as there's ample evidence that such things can lead to additional purchases down the road.
Actually, I think he's right to leave the business-model debate out -it's not Parliament's problem and I doubt many of them would get it anyway- and focus on the fact that we've got a serious proposal to allow corporations to do their own law-enforcement without reference to the courts.
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Josh (profile), 15 Oct 2009 @ 9:12pm

Yet another reason why I should move to England.
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Call me Al, 16 Oct 2009 @ 1:26am

I'm increasingly impressed by Tom Watson's stance on tech matters. He actually seems to understand the issues at hand and to sympathise with the consumer. He was the chap who was essentially overruled by Mandelson over the whole throwing people off the net thing. Clearly he didn't take kindly to that and is registering his view through this motion.

It won't get anywhere though as the Mandelson will apply the whip to the Labour MPs to block it.
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Anon, 18 Oct 2009 @ 4:08pm

The powers that be would be better spending their time getting terrorists of the street and stop being so P C and worrying about offending someone or some religous nut job...
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