ISPs to Be Forced to Block File Sharing Sites

March 3, 2010 by Yonah
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues

photo credit: zeta.net

Digital Economy Bill – three words we’ve been using so much over the past few months we’re developing an allergy to.

The latest news related to the three magic words involve two Lords who have tabled an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill whose purpose is to force Internet service providers to block sites accused of copyright infringement.

The two Lords we’re talking about are Conservative peer Lord Howard of Rising and the Liberal Democrats’ Lord Clement Jones and through this amendment courts would be granted the power to “prevent access to specified online locations for the prevention of online copyright infringement.” Along with the amendment comes a stipulation according to which courts, prior to blocking sites based on copyright infringement, must first investigate whether a “substantial proportion of the content accessible at or via each specified online location infringes copyright” and check if the site’s owner has adopted some required measures to prevent infringement.

Of course, criticism was quick to emerge – the amendment was called “dangerous” by civil liberties campaigners who fear (and they’re right in doing so) such an addition would lead to a very risky imbalance of power in favour of copyright owners.

“Individuals and small businesses would be open to massive ‘copyright attacks’ that could shut them down, just by the threat of action.This is exactly how libel law works today: suppressing free speech by the unwarranted threat of legal action. The expense and the threat are enough to create a ‘chilling effect’,” writes the Open Rights Group’s executive director Jim Killock on the ORG blog.

Tags: anti-piracy, file-sharing, ISPs, legal, UK