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August 17, 2009

Lord Mandelson calls for internet piracy crackdown

Tougher penalties including fines for parents

Carrie-Ann Skinner

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is calling for tougher penalties for illegal downloaders, including fining the parents of children caught illegally file swapping.

Mandelson heads the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which has taken over responsibility for implementing the schemes documented in the Digital Britain report earlier this year.

Mandelson is thought to have been instrumental in proposals set out in a consultation document that will form the basis of the Digital Economy Bill and run alongside the Digital Britain schemes.

The document calls for Ofcom to track and warn the owners of computers being used in illegal downloading activities. Those that continue to offend would have their internet access slowed or blocked, while some could face fines of up to £50,000.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills admitted the paper had been published in a bid to address concerns that the Digital Britain proposals would not help eradicate online piracy.

However, Mandelson may face competition from Pirate Party - a political party that hopes to legalise non-commercial file sharing. The party has already won a seat in Sweden, and hopes to gain supporters in the UK.

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See also: Student file-swapper ordered to pay £400,000

Free whitepaper: Phishing for victims - Truth, myth and cybercrime

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Comments received


Arcless said on Monday, 17 August 2009

Talk about two-faced. The Govt all pretend to be up in arms over the extradition of Gary McKinnon for Hacking into the DoD & NASA sites looking for UFO info. A harmless act - maybe, it hurt nobody but a friendly Govt but just the sort of act that they should be concentrating on.

But no - file-sharers are the target. Once again the Govt takes the easy option, catch and punish the lesser criminal and lets the big boys, the Hackers, Spoofers & Phishers go free because they are too hard a target?

Yes we need policing of copyright theft but £50,000 fines! The real criminals don't get fined that much - if they get caught.

UK Govt - think again!

Cyteck said on Tuesday, 18 August 2009

"The ONLY reason" that the USA government and authorities (military & NASA) are trying to fry Gary McKinnon is because he made such incredible fools of them. Someone at a very high level in the military & NASA had their ego severely dented by what Gary McKinnon did, he showed them how weak or useless their IT & Network security was (is). Gary did them a massive favour in reality but because someone's ego got hurt Gary is being made to pay the price.

**I don't believe the lies the US is telling about the so called millions of dollars damage that Garys actions caused. These are just trumped up twaddle in order to make a scapegoat out of Gary.

**The only crime Gary McKinnon can accurately be accused of is going through an open door and looking around the property. I seriously doubt he can be accused of trashing the joint in the process too?

moggy5 said on Thursday, 20 August 2009

What the hell are we listening to this twice caught out mortgage fraudster,un voted for waste of space that has been hiding out in the EU gravy train that has been made a "lord" so this government can keep his snout in the trough against all our wishes.....I just cannot wait for next May when we can boot this shower out royally so they can do no more damage to this nation!

paul urban said on Thursday, 20 August 2009

I agree with moggy5. Mandelson is a hideous, odious, conniviing, scheming, fraudulent creature who should have no say in the running of British affairs. This would sound more reasonable if they had found someone with a bit more respect to come announce these policies.

Anonymous said on Monday, 07 September 2009

So, we're looking at cutting off people's internet, because of <i>alleged</i> piracy?
Right, so let's assume they really <i>are</i> pirating, since bittorrent could be used for anything, not just piracy. The government will just monitor everything we're doing on the internet, and cut off the connection of anyone who "pirates"?

Even if the UK laws get ignored here, I think the European Commission would be very interested in having a look at the proposal:

(a) Intrusion of privacy, by monitoring all web access
(b) Cutting off internet, which would breach EU laws on Human rights.

In fact, it wouldn't be a bad idea to file an official complaint with the EC, maybe with a petition attatched...

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