UK Govt: File-Sharers Won’t Be Disconnected “Willy Nilly”

[DaBees-Knees]

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/87138/uk-govt-file-sharers-wont-be-disconnected-willy-nilly/

UK Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw addressed the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee today and revealed that the govt is backing down slightly from the controversial proposal by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to automatically disconnect repeat file-sharers from the Internet.

Lord Mandelson feels the current timetable, which stands at 2-3 yrs for a 70% reduction using a combination of notifications and technical measures, would take an “unacceptable amount of time to complete in a situation that calls for urgent action.”

Secretary Bradshaw says file-sharers wouldn’t be disconnected “willy nilly” and would now have the right of appeal. He insists that a court order wouldn’t even be needed in most cases, perhaps attributable to studies that show simple warning letters are enough to deter continued file-sharing.

He added that Internet suspension “would be as a very last resort for serial and serious infringement, would be subject to a strict two-stage process. It wouldn’t just happen on the basis of an accusation … firstly there would need to be a court order for any of the technical measures.”

It’s a welcome turn of events that some govt officials have realized disconnecting households from the Internet involves more than a single person and is a matter that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

However, it still belies the true reality of it all which is that the majority of file-sharers will simply turn to alternative methods of P2P outside the detection methods of copyright holders.

Some 32 MPS, and counting, have already signed Tom Watson’s, UK Labor MP for West Bromwich East, Early Day Motion (EDM) stating their belief 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.”

Add to that a recent Wi-Fi survey conducted by ISP Talk Talk which found that some 41% of connections were vulnerable to hijacking and you have to wonder what the govt will actually accomplish.

It certainly won’t be the end of P2P.

It seems that little private talk that Lord Mandelson had with a lobbyist from the music industry hasn't influenced everyone. 

[GhostShip]

Actually the big guns have come out to join our fight, the police and the security services (aka MI5 and  MI6), they have pointed out something we have said here for a long time, if you drive folks to encryption then it will make it nearly impossible to monitor terrorists and pedophiles in real time, its great to see such common sense being spoken against lord mandelsons "suspension of democracy and justice" plans.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6885923.ece

The police and intelligence services are calling on the Government to drop plans to disconnect persistent internet pirates because they fear that this would make it harder to track criminals online.
The Times understands that both the security services and police are concerned about the plans, believing that threatening to cut off pirates will increase the likelihood that they will escape detection by turning to encryption.

Law enforcement groups, which include the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Metropolitan Police’s e-crime unit, believe that more encryption will increase the costs and workload for those attempting to monitor internet traffic. One official said: “It will make prosecution harder because it increases the workload significantly.”

The fate of our nations technical infrastructure should not rest on the whim of an unelected big media supporter, this article makes it clear that the recording industry are aiding potential terrorists by their thoughtless and selfish actions