British government considering Digital Rights Agency
The British government is asking for views on a proposed agency to oversee copyright issues for online music and video. Government minister David Lammy says, “We need to make it easier for consumers to do the right thing.”
The request comes in a discussion document, which the government stresses is a “straw man” designed to promote debate, rather than a firm set of plans. The idea is less about producing an enforcement body and more about bringing together content producers, officials and the public in an attempt to keep everyone happy.
The plans involve two specific changes to the law. Internet service providers would be legally required to warn offenders that they are committing an offense by downloading or sharing copyrighted material without permission. And ISPs would have to take some form of action against repeat offenders, though the proposed agency would decide what type of action was appropriate.
The debate comes as a survey shows British internet users are split about the best way to deal with illegal downloaders. The most popular solution (26.9 percent) is to simply continue sending warning letters, while 20.7 percent believe blocking or slowing access to peer-to-peer services would be best, and 14.8 percent backed restricting the offender’s overall speed. The idea of a ban from one or all internet service providers a total of 11.3 percent support.
The results aren’t necessarily that instructive though. The survey involved just 472 people and was conducted among visitors to the ispreview.co.uk site, which hardly makes a representative sample of the British public when it comes to ISP issues.
The biggest problem with the proposals is that it appears to be based on the idea that consumers are confused about the law online, with Lammy saying “We can’t have a system where even net-surfing 12-year-olds have to understand copyright in order to keep themselves and their parents safe within the law.”
But this theory doesn’t stand up to the evidence – detailed in the paper itself – that many people who download copyrighted material know full well they are breaking the law. Instead they either don’t think the product is worth paying for, or they object to having to wait months for TV shows and movies from other countries to be available legally in the United Kingdom.
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