Apparently the incredibly strong reaction against an EU-wide three strikes law left no dent on some British organizations. Groups such as the British Phonographic Industry and the Federation Against Copyright Theft are lobbying Parliament to include provisions in the Digital Britain manifesto which would “force ISPs into banning users caught sharing illegally.” Any law which forces service providers to do this and all the data that watchdog groups claim they have are now and have always been completely bogus.
Let’s start with how wrong the data is. The first stat, that 50% of online traffic in the UK is illegal content, could be correct, but to say that file sharing is going to destroy DVD sales is plain wrong. If Joe Smith wants to own a DVD, he’s going to go and buy it. If Joe Smith instead, however, just has some small interest in seeing some movie once, why would anyone think he’d go out and buy it? If he’s so inclined, he might download it through illegal means, but there is nothing to suggest that every illegal download translates to a direct hit to sales. There’s another story running today saying that seven million Britons use illegal files, but that does not mean that seven million people would otherwise be in the shops, buying up every piece of media and software in sight.
The second problem is the law itself. ISPs across the pond are saying that a provision forcing users off the internet would be fine because individuals could fight it in court, but there needs to be more of a process that shields individuals before the provision is in any way OK. Users should have more than one chance before they are banned from the entirety of the web. Additionally, vested interest groups should have to, before a jury, prove that the accused actually committed the crime before they are treated as criminals. I mean, honestly. You know your value system is out of whack when you are willing to forgo “innocent until proven guilty” over an mp3 download.
