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Copyright: Internet

Answer

The Government recognise the damaging economic impact of copyright theft and infringement, and unlawful peer-to-peer file-sharing in particular, on the creative sector. Although the music industry is currently affected most by this, other industries—such as film, computer games and publishing—will be increasingly affected as higher broadband speeds are introduced. Last year we set up a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Government, internet service providers (ISPs) and rights holders, as a first step to finding agreement on a way forward. Outcomes from the MOU informed the proposals set out in the Digital Britain Interim Report (DBIR) in January. The DBIR proposed a requirement for ISPs to notify their customers when rights holders identified them as engaging in unlawful file sharing. Information on the most serious infringers would then be made available to rights holders (based on the collection of data on the notification requests from rights holders, and subject to a court order) to help them prioritise legal action against those infringers. This would provide a form of graduated response up to prosecution for the most serious infringers. Other forms of graduated response have been suggested to us in response to consultations on this issue, and we are considering the merits of these. We have also consulted on the idea of creating a rights agency, the establishment of a code of practice and Ofcom's possible involvement in this. We have discussed these issues and ideas at ministerial and official level both between Departments and with many interested parties, including ISPs, the UK Film Council and other rights holders' representatives. We will issue a further consultation on the legislative proposals shortly.More generally, the DBIR acknowledged the structural and cyclical pressures on the UK's media industry and the threats to continued investment in UK-originated content in the digital world. We recognise the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to digital, and the DBIR made a commitment to investigate ways to address these issues further. Our conclusions will be published in the final Digital Britain report.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

492 c1116-7W; 275934

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Copyright Internet

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk