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Digital Top Stories
Three-strikes petition has over 24,000 signatories
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 26 November 2009
A petition against the government’s proposals to introduce a three-strikes style system for combating online piracy is currently the sixth most signed on the Number 10 Downing Street website, despite being among the newest petitions on there. As I write this 24,390 people have added their names to the petition.
It was set up by a rep of internet service provider TalkTalk who have, of course, been especially vocal in opposing any measures that would force ISPs to take action against persistent file-sharers. The petition is a response, also of course, to the government’s Digital Economy Bill, published last week, which includes a provision for suspending the internet connections of those who continue to access illegal sources of music or film content despite warnings.
While claiming that persistent file-sharers will hack into others’ wi-fi connections to access illegal content, meaning innocent parties will face warning letters and suspension, the main part of the petition focuses on the usual issue associated with three strikes: whether cases will go through a court of law before suspension takes place.
It was that issue that caused French three-strike proposals to initially stumble at the country’s Constitutional Council, and was also at the heart of uproar in New Zealand when politicians there made three-strikes law. The French government got round it by having a judge rubber stamp any disconnection notices, and by assuring constitutional judges there would be an opportunity for those accused of file-sharing to defend themselves.
Whether adding such a nominal judicial element to the UK’s three-strikes system would appease objectors I’m not sure, though it’s unlikely to appease TalkTalk who’d rather have to never think about what their customers are up to on their servers.
The anti-three-strike petition was aided by that Tweeter-In-Chief Stephen Fry. He had previously leant his support to the aforementioned anti-three-strike movement in New Zealand, and earlier this week urged his British followers to sign TalkTalk’s petition.
Noting that the three-strikes provisions have been pushed through in the main by Peter Mandelson, he tweeted: “Dear Mandy, splendid fellow in many ways, but he is SO WRONG about copyright”.
Of course Number 10 petitions rarely result in anything much – certainly those tedious political types managed to ignore the last one I put my name to, calling for the National Anthem to be replaced with a Human League track. But organisations like the Open Rights Group have reported tangible increases in membership since the three-strikes proposals were formally put on the parliamentary agenda last week, so opposition to the idea is likely to be even more vocal if and when it reaches the House Of Commons.
Meanwhile, BPI boss Geoff Taylor and the Featured Artist Coalition’s Jeremy Silver are due to talk on this very issue at an Internet Service Provider Association conference next week, which should be interesting. The FAC have mixed opinions about net suspensions for file-sharers, of course, but the BPI has been spearheading the lobbying activity to get such measures on the statute book. Given most ISPs hate the idea of suspending net users, Taylor could be in for an interesting hour.
