A new proposal in Britain, taken up by the House of Commons today, wants to make it law that ISPs are forced to block access to all sites that offer unauthorized movies, music and other pirated content like games and books.
Content holders say the amendment will finally give them “the tools to tackle the piracy problem at the supply and demand levels,” says the NYTimes, but critics see censorship of the Internet and general undermining of the development of England’s digital economy.
The Open Rights Group, which has been fighting against Internet censorship, says the new law will certainly be abused, allowing individuals or companies to “suppress any Web content they find objectionable, under the pretext of protecting their copyright.”
The British government says curbing piracy will bring hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to the entertainment industry, which accounts for 6 percent of economic output, but critics say the policies will be expensive for the ISPs, and taxpayers will be forced to help pay for the enforcement of policies they couldn’t care less about.
Result for: Mov
James Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corps. European and Asian operations has made some interesting comments this week in regards to piracy, calling on governments to “get tough” on illegal downloading.
“We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball … There is no difference with going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag and taking this stuff. It’s a basic condition for investment and economic growth and there should be the same level of property rights whether it’s a house or a movie,” said Murdoch. “The idea that there’s a new consumer class and you have to be consumer-friendly when they’re stealing stuff. No. There should be the same level of sanctity as there is around property. Content is no different. They’re not crazy kids. No. Punish them.”
James Murdoch is the son of mogul Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corp, and younger Murdoch is expected to take over the company when his father retires.
Adding to what his father has said in the past, James said News Corp. will act against “content aggregators,” including search giant Google, in order to protect its copyrights.
“We’re being very careful legally to protect our rights,” says Murdoch, via Guardian. “If there’s money getting stuck it’s getting stuck in an inefficient distribution layer … where Google and Yahoo are suddenly indexing copyright material and then selling bits of it and making money from it. You may have to withdraw access to those things. You may not.”
Result for: Mov
Greek authorities have taken down the large torrent tracker Gamato.info, accusing the site of facilitating copyright infringement of music, games, movies, and books.
Six admins of the site were also arrested in raids of their homes in Athens, Salonika, Larissa and Aridaia.
The police officials were working on tips from IFPI Greece, the local branch of the industry group.
Gamato.info was a top 20 most visited site in Greece, with an estimated 155,000 daily visitors. The site had around 13,000 movies, 6500 games and over 35,000 music albums available.
Says Jeremy Banks, director of anti-piracy at IFPI: “Gamato.info was facilitating the illegal distribution of music, film, games and books. It is the perfect illustration of how such illegal operations are damaging a wide range of creative industries in Europe. The Hellenic Police swiftly recognized this was not a victimless crime and took action against those who sought to shamelessly profit off the back of others’ creative work. This skilfully executed action by a highly knowledgeable police force should act as a real deterrent to others in Greece considering engaging in online piracy.”
