The UK government has made a dramatic U-turn on proposed measures to tackle Internet pirates who illegally download films and music from the net. In an amendment to the Digital Britain report, the government has indicated that greater powers would be granted to regulator Ofcom to take action against repeat infringers and technical measures are likely to include the suspension of accounts of 'hardcore copyright pirates'. This is a significant U-turn by the government, which made clear in the original report that it was not in favour of a policy that would see accounts suspended or cut off given that Internet access was now seen as being as valuable as other utilities such as water and electricity. Now it seems that the government intends to require Internet service providers to take action against repeat infringers with the cost of policing the web being borne equally by ISPs and rights holders. The Internet Service Providers' Association was said to be disappointed by the proposal to force ISPs the suspend their customers' accounts.
A suspension policy raises a number of issues and could have serious ramifications for some. For example, those who work from home could find themselves without Internet access if their children engage in infringing activity in the evenings. In Europe, politicians have ruled that disconnecting a user's Internet connection could potentially be a breach of their human rights. The ruling was made in response to a challenge to new legislation passed in France to implement a 'three strikes law', so called because it would involve ISPs terminating persistent net pirates' Internet connections if they ignored two official warning letters.
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