ISPs and Copyright Holders Fail to Reach Piracy Agreement

[DaBees-Knees]

http://torrentfreak.com/isps-and-copyright-holders-fail-to-reach-piracy-agreement-090501/

Copyright holders in Spain want ISPs to help offset the cost of piracy by imposing a surcharge on customers’ accounts. They also want ISPs to disconnect copyright infringers from the Internet. After many months in government mandated talks, no agreement has been reached. After many months of negotiations, government mandated talks between copyright holders and ISPs to find a mutually acceptable solution to the illicit file-sharing “problem”, have ended with no agreement. The copyright holders, the Coalition of Creators represented by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), wanted the ISPs to charge their customers extra to cover alleged losses from their activities on P2P networks. Eduardo Bautista, SGAE’s president, recently said that it is the ISPs “civic duty” to cooperate. Unsurprisingly, he also wants repeat infringers to be disconnected from the web. The mobile operators on the receiving end of these demands - Ono, Orange, Telefónica, Vodafone - can’t reach an agreement with the copyright holders on how to move forward, which is hardly a surprise considering what is being asked of them. Bautista said he wants to find a solution to the online piracy problem so it remains profitable for authors and publishers to carry on their work. He called on the government to respond “smarter” to the problem. “You can not create a business leaving out the first link,” he said. The two groups will now present separate proposals to the government. Internet users or consumer groups were not represented in these discussions.

"Internet users or consumer groups were not represented in these discussions" ......... that says  it all !!!!!!!

[Trestor]

Civic duty? This, coming from from these people? Ha ha! The very fact they said this shows they couldn't produce a convincing reason why the ISPs should co-operate. If they want to talk about civic duty, what about the Cartel's civic duty to respect the social contract implicit in the original copyright laws, instead of moving the goal posts to constantly extend their own privileges and leaving the consumer on the losing end, and having no say in the process?

But perhaps the ISPs should agree to charging more, and also demand compensation from the Cartel for the loss of business and reputation this would entail; say, 200% over the consumer increase in price, per customer per annum, which can be gifted to all their customers.

I believe that current copyright laws are what some call 'illegal laws' (supposedly an oxymoron, but possible nonetheless), because they are certainly immoral. ISPs should never consider themselves under any sort of obligation to aid, facilitate or assist the Cartel in anything whatsoever (any more than they should assist any other thief), and certainly not in helping the Cartel against the public and against their own interests. What would the ISPs get for looking after Cartel interests? Zip, except a big loss of business. ISPs in countries where they have cooperated with the Cartel against their own customers should be ashamed of themselves.

I'm all in favor of the rule of law, but law must be equitable; if a law favors the privileged, it's an obscenity. The Cartel has seen to it that the copyright laws have been changed so they are not equitable at all, but are exclusively in their favor. They now con and trick governments and populations that the file sharers are the villains, demanding disproportionate punishments (huge fines and prison time) for minor offenses, which shouldn't be illegal in the first place.