Press Releases
11th November 2008
FAST Supports Government Action On ISP Copyright Responsibilities
Federation responds to ‘Consultation on Legislative Options To Address Illicit Peer-to-peer File Sharing’
It’s inevitable; the Government will have to act and introduce appropriate by illicit P2P file sharing, according to the Federation Against Software Theft: There must be a legislative backstop.
The call was made in response to the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s consultation into the legislative options, which was launched in July this year.
John Lovelock, Chief Executive of The Federation, stated: “A voluntary approach would be the easiest solution but experience has shown that such an approach may well not work, as it is dependent on a full consensus being achieved; to date this has not been successful, despite ongoing dialogue between rights holders and ISPs.”
“A further consideration is that ISPs will be reluctant to take action against their customers, thereby risking alienating and losing them. Some regulatory requirements will inevitably be needed, as this will take the decision out of the hands of the ISPs themselves. It is unlikely to be a truly voluntary scheme,” he added.
The consultation began in July 2008 and was “intended to set out and gather views on a proposal for a co-regulatory approach that could be adopted in order to facilitate and ensure co-operation between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and rights holders to address the problem of illicit use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing technology to exchange unlawful copies of copyright material.”
John Lovelock continued: “Allowing ISPs to ‘choose not to engage in the selfregulatory arrangement’ as detailed in this consultation document would, to my mind, undermine the entire arrangement. By permitting ISPs to ‘opt out’ of the procedures, the so-called co-regulatory approach, would create a twotier system which would be far from satisfactory.”
“We are therefore calling for maintaining the political will to require ISPs to take some proper and active part in combating illicit file sharing. One argument is that personal data relating to a given IP address may be given to the rights holder on request, without a court order being needed, which is arguably gold plating."
He added: “We also feel that the scope of the consultation is too narrow, in that by concentrating on just P2P file-sharing there is a risk of comparable issues relating to other technologies – which may supercede P2P being overlooked. The time for talking and consultation is over – it is time to keep the momentum!”
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About FAST
In September 2008 the Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software joined forces to deliver a distilled, simplified and unified view of software asset management (SAM) and software license management (SLM) best practice to the end user community. The strength of the two reputable brands encapsulates a holistic approach to driving the professional use of software across the industry and the globe.
The Federation Against Software Theft was formed in 1984 making it the world's first anti-piracy organisation and continues to be a not-for-profit organisation that is limited by guarantee and wholly owned by its members, working on many fronts to promote the legitimate use of software and protect its members. rights through education, enforcement, lobbying and promoting standards and best practice in business.
For more information please contact:
Jared Foley/Richard Merrin
Spreckley Partners Ltd
T: 020 7388 9988
E: foley@spreckley.co.uk
E: merrin@spreckley.co.uk
W: www.spreckley.co.uk