UK ISPs To Pay 25% of Copyright Enforcement Costs 255
Andorin writes "The UK's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has released a report (PDF) related to the new Digital Economy Act. The debate between copyright holders and ISPs about who should front the costs for the enforcement of the Act's anti-piracy provisions has come to a close: Rights holders will pay 75% of the copyright enforcement costs, with the remaining 25% of the bill going to ISPs (and therefore their customers). Says the Minister for Communications, Ed Vaizey: 'Protecting our valuable creative industries, which have already suffered significant losses as a result of people sharing digital content without paying for it, is at the heart of these measures... We expect the measures will benefit our creative economy by some £200m per year and as rights holders are the main beneficiaries of the system, we believe our decision on costs is proportionate to everyone involved.' Not surprisingly, some ISPs and consumer groups are up in arms about the decision, with one ISP calling it a government subsidy of the entertainment industries."
Thank you for legitimizing bittorrenting (Score:5, Interesting)
This cost will get passed on to the ISP's customers. Everyone with broadband will be required to subsidize the entertainment industry as it pretends to die from losses to piracy while reporting massive profits. If they're forcing me to compensate them for losses based on arbitrary made-up amounts for 'imaginary' lost sales then I will force them to compensate me by giving me free movies & tv shows based on my arbitrarily assigned figures for its value. I think a 2500th of it's retail price (as they like that figure and use it to calculate lawsuit settlements) is fair. I'll be more than happy to bittorrent the equivalent value with my broadband connection.
Hmm..... interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:5, Interesting)
How can we become your customer (I'm a fan of putting my money where my mouth is)?
Re:Thank you for legitimizing bittorrenting (Score:1, Interesting)
Constant IP changes, supporting / promoting encrypted traffic, deleting logs often, preventing Torrent traffic for users unless they turn on encryption...
Re:Eh... (Score:1, Interesting)
Uh, no.
Sorry but responsibility doesn't work that way. If anything, that would be contradicting the right to have an interest in your government, and petition it.
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:4, Interesting)
So you don't mind if we restore copyright to something 10-15 years, then, since the likelyhood your getting paid is almost nil in any case?
Flag in front of cars (Score:3, Interesting)
In other news, the UK Parliament passed a law requiring car owners to have a flag bearer walk in front of cars. The Minister of Roads claimed it was to protect the safety of pedestrians, but critics say the law is to protect the locomotive industry.
This new 25% Law is equally preposterous/bullshit
.
interesting... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:2, Interesting)
>>>Those of us who actually do create things are more worried about turning potential customers into real customers than suing people.
Then why do you join organizations like RIAA, MPAA, Authors Guild, SAG, and/or others that support suing people? Quit them and rally your other authors/creators to do the same.
Re:Good (Score:3, Interesting)
Not really, the public accepted this tax in Canada because the way it is done the 10% surcharge basically gives us free license to pirate anything we want without having to worry about it. They can only really successfully prosecute in Canada nowadays if you made money off of your piracy. There is a legal situation where if you are the originator of a file that could be considered to be damaging to the company that you can get charged but basically as long as you're not the originator you're fine.
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:4, Interesting)
10 years would be fine. My sales drop to close to zero after 3 years, so I doubt it would affect me much, other than by giving my publisher an incentive to commission new stuff more frequently.
This, by the way, is exactly what the Gowers report, commissioned by the last UK government, recommended. Labour extended copyright terms shortly after reading this report. Apparently we're getting more of the same from the ConDems.
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:5, Interesting)
You could buy something from this page [informit.com], if you can find something that you find interesting.
I've not tried for a while, but Google used to return a pirate download site as the first hit when you searched for my Xen book's title. Some asshat also decided to post a copy of the PDF version to the Xen Devel mailing list a while ago. I don't encourage piracy, but I don't see the point in doing anything that harms legitimate customers in an attempt to reduce it, which is why I added a clause to the contracts for all of the books that I've written (the third one's due out later this year) forbidding the use of DRM in the eBook editions.
I recently talked to a guy in India who pirated my second book. His family's income for a week is about the cover price (he's using it to learn GNUstep - he can't afford a Mac either) so I've clearly not lost anything from his piracy - he couldn't have afforded it anyway, and he wrote a positive review of it so I might have got some sales out of that.
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:5, Interesting)
See: RIAA, MPAA, writer's guild,
None of these are producing copyrighted works, they are organisations of lawyers representing the publishers who won't adapt. My publisher is happy to change their business model (see: Safari Books Online, InformIT) when they think it can make them more money. The RIAA and MPAA (and writer's guild, although to a lesser extent) are groups of lawyers who would rather change the world than change themselves.
Richard Stallman and his freakish infectious copyright ideals.
I don't really disagree with Stallman - I've signed a copyright assignment with the FSF for the GNUstep stuff I've done and my (second) Objective-C runtime is a GNU project. Stallman's ideas are quite simple - creating is harder more valuable than copying, so that is what should be financially rewarded. The copyright system exists so that you can do the hard bit (creating something original) for free and then get people to pay you for doing the easy bit (creating copies of it).
Re:Thank you for legitimizing bittorrenting (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope the ISPs bill the monitoring of users at 25% of the cost of enforcement, therefore paying nothing to the RIAA.
Even better, bill it at 50% and ask the RIAA to make up the difference. The RIAA uses the same sort of accounting on artists so it's only fair....
Re:taxation without representation (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the individuals in the corp should go to jail for an aggregate total of punished time. But the division of how long each person stays in jail is based upon pay, benefits, bonus, and responsibility.
So if someone in the next fuctional area got someone killed, i wouldn't have to be in jail with them. But if i was in their department, my jailtime would be based on my position within that department. The department head would carry the brunt of the punishment, or the CEO/directors if it was policy being implimented by the dept.
I don't think this system would work with fines or death penalties though.
Argh! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm one of these sad people who doesn't (knowingly) infringe copyright on purpose. I'm a UK citizen and I respect copyright laws since they allow things like the GPL to operate and I make a reasonable living working for large companies that use Free and Open Source software in commercial products.
I'm not interested in "pirating" all of this main-stream music, TV and cinema. Life's too short to spend it ingesting drivel. I utterly resent having to pay for it just in case I might decide to "steal" some of it. I am selective about what I give my attention to and I like to obtain it fairly.
I like to support my favourite bands. I buy their CDs (and I break English law when I rip them and FLAC them for personal use) and I go to their shows. My wife and I spend hundreds of pounds a year going to see our favourite bands (including tickets, travel, food and drink, t-shirts). None of these are top-40 acts, by the way. The last lot we saw were Voivod when they played in Nottingham. This year we have also seen Les Claypool and Slayer.
I don't go to the cinema. There's nothing on. It's all aimed at retarded 7-year-olds. I don't "bit torrent" any films. We buy anything we do want to see (and keep) on DVD, including good TV programmes like Frasier, Father Ted etc.
We don't do ebooks. They are an abomination. Books are to be printed on paper and read.
I do "bit torrent" my Operating Systems and they are "copyright" (sic) i.e. copyrighted: but I'm not stealing since they are licensed under Free and Open Source terms and conditions.
If people want to earn money, they'd better jolly well produce something of value that people are willing to pay for. Hollywood cinema and manufactured pop music ain't it.
Re:What do UKers think? (Score:3, Interesting)
Lucky you.
When I was at walmart I earned ~$1000 a month.
rent on a 1 bedroom next to a crackhouse? ~$500.
Utility cost in a poorly insulated rat trap? ~$300.
We are talking about a low density area (Mississippi), car required: ~$300 (assuming insurance + gas + either a low note or regular lemon repair costs).
Now you have to eat? wait, you are already 100 dollars in the hole...
So we also sell our blood plasma for an extra $300, now you can afford ramen noodles and peanut butter for special occasions.
God forbid you have any kids, need to buy clothes/furniture, date a girl, stimulate your mind or go to a doctor.
The only way to make a living on a wal-mart salary is if you are lucky enough to be in walking distance from wal-mart and have a home that is already bought and paid for, or if you can split expenses 3+ ways with other people working similar jobs. Splitting the costs 2 ways won't even really cut it because even if you skimp on entertainment and only shop at goodwill, you still won't be able to save for either inevitable emergencies or for the future.
Any ISP... (Score:3, Interesting)
Any ISP who will forward me any such kind of harassment letter will get from me a reply which will tell them that the allegations are completely unjustified (and that I want to see any proofs of them supporting their allegations). I will warn them that if they continue to harass me, that I will with out further notice cancel my contract with them and move to an other ISP. If I receive another letter I will cancel my contract without any further warning. If they refuse to accept my cancellation I will sue them for harassment and I doubt that they will have any evidence whatsoever that I did anything wrong. So they will lose in court (and meanwhile I do have other means to get to the internet if things really go bad)...