The government will introduce a "three strikes and you're
out" policy without a court order to stop illegal online
file-sharing, business secretary Peter Mandelson has told a
government-sponsored meeting of content and network
providers.
The move follows a
controversial watering-down of Amendment 138 in the European
Parliament. Amendment 138, which the British and French governments
lobbied against, insisted that no-one could interfere with a user's
right to access and use the internet without a court order.
Mandelson's move is contrary to moves by US regulators to
enhance so-called net neutrality. However, music mogul David Geffen
is
reported to have lobbied Mandelson personally for immediate
action against people who download music illegally.
Mandelson told the
Cabinet meeting the bill
would give notice and take-down procedures legal force. He said one
in 20 music files was downloaded legally.
"Warning notifications followed up with targeted legal action by
rights holders should be the only enforcement action required to
significantly reduce the level of unlawful file-sharing," he
said.
He said the government would reserve powers to order internet
service providers (ISPs) to invoke "technical measures", such as
filtering and restricting bandwidth. "Account suspension will be an
option available to apply at the last resort for the most serious
infringers," he said.
Chris Watson of City law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, said, "Rights
holders and creative industries will welcome Mandelson's stance,
which may be enough to deter casual P2P file-sharers. But consumers
will be concerned that they could be cut-off from the internet
without a fair trial."
He said the "opportunity to appeal", as Mandelson put it, was
not one of the normal legal protections of intellectual property
rights, and could be incompatible with the European Convention on
Human Rights.
"This is especially relevant as current technology used to
identify file-sharers can all too easily implicate innocent people.
ISPs' concerns about who will pay for the new regime will not be
alleviated by these comments, which are peculiarly silent on the
costs of the new proposals," he said.