No cutting off people's internet based on secret evidence

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Ofcom should force rights-holders into publishing most of the details about how their systems for identifying cases of online copyright infringement work, a consumer watchdog has said.

In a letter (6-page/1.71MB PDF) to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Consumer Focus said that it would seek "full transparency in relation to how evidence is gathered" so that internet subscribers would be able to challenge allegations that they have infringed rights-holders' copyrights under planned new anti-piracy procedures being developed by Ofcom.

The MPAA represents the six major film studios: Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.

Consumer Focus acknowledged that while a "handful of details" such as the IP address of the monitoring systems rights-holders use to identify infringers should "remain confidential", it said it would not be justified for rights-holders not to publish the remaining details about its evidence gathering processes.

"We received legal advice that it would be contrary to principles of natural justice if internet subscribers would have to second guess the evidence on the basis of which they are accused of copyright infringement," Consumer Focus chief executive Mike O'Connor CBE said in a letter to the MPAA.

O'Connor added that those accused of infringement should have "access to the same evidence" copyright holders have used to determine cases against them and that this information should include "the evidence gathering process used".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/17/consumer_focus_asks_mpaa_to_spill_beans_on_copyright_infringement_procedures/