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Deutsch: Britische Kreativindustrien fordern die Ausschaltung von Filesharern

An alliance of eight UK creative industries and five trade unions want the government to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to disconnect persistent alleged illegal file sharers from the Internet and have issued a set of "urgent recommendations" they want to be included in the government's Digital Britain manifesto.

The group considers that more than 50% of the net traffic in the UK is illegal content, situation which puts jobs in the creative industries at risk. "The growing threat of illegal P2P (peer to peer) file-sharing threatens (the creative industries), as films go unmade, DVD sales deteriorate and jobs are lost in production and distribution of content," said John Woodward, head of the UK Film Council.

In 2008, the UK Government urged ISPs to take measures to prevent illegal downloading but refrained from introducing legislation that would force ISPs to disconnect file sharers. Some of the UK's biggest internet providers accepted a voluntary scheme and sent warning letters to thousands of users suspected of illegally sharing music.

The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA) considers however that disconnections could be challenged by users in court and that, for the time being, the standard of the technology available for monitoring and detecting illegal sharers was not one to be admissible as evidence in court. In ISPA's opinion, the rights holders should rewrite their licensing agreements so as to take into consideration the "new models of online content distribution". ISPA's secretary general, Nicholas Lansman, said to BBC: "ISPA recognises that there is a problem with unlawful P2P file sharing, but it is important to recognise that a major part of the solution lies in licensing reform and the availability of legal content online."

Woodward agreed the film industry had to introduce radical new business models and needed to work more closely with ISPs in this digital era. "There needs to be a better relationship between content providers, ISPS and consumers." In his opinion, ISPs might consider a graduated response system if they were "incentivised to tackle piracy" by the content providers paying distribution fees to ISPs.

UK's Intellectual Property minister David Lammy said earlier this year that the government would not force ISPs to pursue file sharers. "We can't have a system where we're talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms," he told The Times newspaper.

Barbara Follett, Minister for the creative industries, also said at a conference of industry executives in London that the UK government was more in favour of sending warning letters to offenders threatening with legal actions rather than taking steps to slow or stop users' connections. "We propose a requirement for ISPs to notify their customers that are engaging in unlawful file-sharing and notify them in such a way that any further action would have consequences," she said adding that the Digital Britain report in June will include details related to the types of legal action to be taken.

Call to 'disconnect file-sharers' (12.05.2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8044251.stm

UK Govt. to hear calls to disconnect file sharers (12.05.2009)
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2009/05/12/uk-govt-to-hear-calls-to-disco...

Net firms reject 'policing role' (12.05.2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8046028.stm

British ISPs warn Internet downloaders on the risk of being prosecuted (18.06.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.12/british-isp-virgin-letters