UK Bill Introduces 10 Year Sentence For Online Pirates

[AresKrieger]

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The plan followed a recommendation put forward in a study commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) a few months earlier.

This study concluded that criminal sanctions for online copyright infringement could be increased to bring them into line with related offenses, such as counterfeiting.

 

So now copyright infringement is on the same level as printing money, umm ok uk parliament, maybe you should focus on EU matters instead of shilling for media companies just a thought

 

Quote

Before implementing the changes the Government launched a public consultation, asking for comments and advice from the public. But, even though the vast majority of the responses urged the authorities not to up the prison term, lawmakers decided otherwise.

As a result, a new draft of the Digital Economy bill published this week extends the current prison term from two to ten years. The relevant part amends the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and simply replaces the word two with ten.

The new bill was unveiled in Parliament yesterday where it passed its first reading. If adopted in its current form, it allows courts to hand out tougher sentences.

 

This is the change in question, changing the max sentence to 10 years.

 

Quote

 

They then go on to explain the circumstances which this level of punishment may be carried out, though vaguely.

 

Quote

“The Government believes that a maximum sentence of 10 years allows the courts to apply an appropriate sentence to reflect the scale of the offending,” the Government explained previously, adding that the maximum sentence will only be applied in rare cases.

This means that casual file-sharers are not likely to end up in prison for a decade. However, organized groups that systematically offer pirated files, such as Scene or P2P release groups, are likely to be punished more harshly.

 

The maximum sentence will only carried out in rare cases, ok but they didn't explain the cases they deem valid I assume it will be for pirate site but I feel this could be abused unless spelled out in the legal code, also this means you could get less than 10 years but still more than the previous maximum (2 years) for a less "rare" case, I find copyright laws to already suck adding harsh penalties won't actually stop it, but it will expose just how corrupt the people who voted this in are. So what do you guys in the UK think about all of this, I'm an outsider of course but this does remind me of a Simpsons joke.

 

 

https://torrentfreak.com/uk-bill-introduces-10-year-prison-sentence-for-online-pirates-160706/

 

[burnttoastnice]

So while the government has no clear Brexit plan they're discussing Movie piracy. Hmm, OK. In my opinion there are much more important issues than piracy that need to be addressed. It's a battle that simply will never be won.

[SansVarnic]

Umm well with current state of affairs in the UK...good luck on that.  

[Oshino Shinobu]

The UK government has really been focused on the important issues over the last couple of years. 

 

- The types of porn you can create

- How easy it is to watch porn

- Storing user's online records (yes, Investigatory Powers Bill is that vague)

- Making it more difficult to use secure encryption (Cameron's enthusiasm to ban effective encryption that keeps the government out)

- Putting people sitting at home downloading movies in jail (probably porn movies)

 

It seems like the UK government is overly keen to know and regulate the population's porn habits. 

 

EDIT: For reference, the maximum sentence for general theft is 7 years (AFAIK). So actually stealing physical goods isn't as bad, I guess. 

 

The whole of UK politics and government is a mess right now, so it's to be expected. I wouldn't be surprised to see a load of bills being passed under the fuss of the EU referendum. 

[AresKrieger]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

The UK government has really been focused on the important issues over the last couple of years. 

 

- The types of porn you can create

- How easy it is to watch porn

- Storing user's online records (yes, Investigatory Powers Bill is that vague)

- Making it more difficult to use secure encryption (Cameron's enthusiasm to ban effective encryption that keeps the government out)

- Putting people sitting at home downloading movies in jail (probably porn movies)

 

It seems like the UK government is overly keen to know and regulate the population's porn habits. 

I should be more scared by that list, but the US hasn't been doing much better in the fixing actual problems department, good to know what parliament keeps it's eyes on though  

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

I should be more scared by that list, but the US hasn't been doing much better in the fixing actual problems department, good to know what parliament keeps it's eyes on though  

It's worrying how our (ex)prime minister complimented China on their internet censorship laws. 

[SSL]

Makes sense. The people most harmed by piracy are also those with the greatest ability to influence government, so why shouldn't their needs be placed over real threats to national security?

[PlayStation 2]

You see why we take you as a joke, UK?

[TetraSky]

I just hope they don't try to make an "example" out of some random guy who downloaded 1 terrible movie and convict him for 10 years in jail. Which would be ridiculous considering that essentially amount to petty theft(watch movie once, delete it, basically $5 rental) and he'd get a lesser sentence had he stolen a physical copy instead of downloading it.

[SansVarnic]

7 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

You see why we take you as a joke, UK?

Not to be "that guy" but the US is not too far behind......

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, SansVarnic said:

Not to be "that guy" but the US is not too far behind......

Oh, don't worry. I know.

[AresKrieger]

14 minutes ago, Kyle Billheimer said:

1) That is the best GIF I have ever seen.
2) Why are they even trying? Isn't masking your piracy as easy as a VPN, or Tor?...
3) This will literally have zero effect on the amount of people who will pirate things, none of them care BECAUSE of how easy it is to hide.

I figured the gif was a nice touch, and yes this won't stop anyone who knows what vpn is. Though more novice people will be potentially be screwed over, but I find laws like these to be a sad sign of just how rotten to the core our governments are.

[wolfsbane3083]

Well, I've just set up my first VPN sub.

[Deli]

I feel sorry for the people in UK to have such a retarded government.

[SansVarnic]

1st mistake, joining the EU. 2nd though 50th + mistake; focusing on legislation that has nothing to do with improving life in the UK. 

 

*edit 

This ^^^ coming from a farm boy in Iowa of all places! ha! (unless you live in Des Moines or Davenport you are automatically a farm boy)

[SansVarnic]

US 1st mistake; electing Taft.

2nd Wilson.

3rd Bush Sr. 

4th Bush

5th & 6th thru 1,000th Obama.

 

[AresKrieger]

11 minutes ago, Kyle Billheimer said:

When USA can call another major country out for having a shitty government, something's wrong.

 

5 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

US 1st mistake; electing Taft.

2nd Wilson.

3rd Bush Sr. 

4th Bush

5th & 6th thru 1,000th Obama.

 

11 minutes ago, Kyle Billheimer said:

When USA can call another major country out for having a shitty government, something's wrong.

 

Honestly our system was fine until FDR manage to allocate the federal government more power, once that happened the federal government began to balloon into what it is today since precedents were set allowing for it to acquire more control, then it also also become influence by corporate interest over time due to lobbying hence we have the corrupt officials we have today.

[SansVarnic]

9 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

 

 

Honestly our system was fine until FDR manage to allocate the federal government more power, once that happened the federal government began to balloon into what it is today since precedents were set allowing for it to acquire more control, then it also also become influence by corporate interest over time due to lobbying hence we have the corrupt officials we have today.

Yup

It was Wilson that helped push for Income tax's re-introduction and made into an amendment, that is why I mention him. Taft was just off. I guess one thing Taft did that was good was urging the Free Trade Accord with Canada.

 

 

*edit I guess were steering off topic here... time to shift back.

Edited July 7, 2016 by SansVarnic

[That Norwegian Guy]

Reading about the UK lately all I can do is roll my eyes

 

 

[Zodiark1593]

Unless the UK wants to start requiring registration and licensing use of general-purpose PCs, such a law isn't easily enforceable as it heavily relies on the suspect making several critical rookie mistakes.

[Master Disaster]

3 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

You see why we take you as a joke, UK?

It's OK, we see ourselves as a joke too. 

[Rune]

I think the most powerful leaders in both the US and the UK made a bet on who can do the dumbest thing and they are continually trying to one-up each other.

 

But we have a trump card.

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, Rune said:

But we have a hillary card.

There we go.

[Zodiark1593]

44 minutes ago, Kyle Billheimer said:

Exactly, they should honestly just give up, and look at actual problems...
Piracy doesn't even have an effect on sales in the long run anyways, most people who pirate something were never going to be willing to pay for it to start with.. so it's not like anyone is even losing money. I just don't understand why everyone tries so hard to enforce Piracy, it will never work out for them.

I can see why the penalty is so high though. Such a law is not technically feasible to enforce compliance, and relatively few people even respect such laws to begin with. In lieu of the former, the only other swaying power a law can carry is the threat of consequence.

 

Hence, to have some gains in compliance with a law that cannot be enforced, and few respect, the penalty must be made high enough to act as a deterrent. The thought of ten years in prison for downloading a .MP3 (aided by the unfortunate one or two being made examples of) could be enough to turn off a slight fraction of the population from downloading said track, and could potentially be called a success, if improvements in the sub-1% range could be called a success..

[Thony]

A stupid dinosaurs and money grabbing lawmakers...

 

Brexit isn't enough ! Let's fuck up a little bit more, shall we ?!