Jul 24, 2008

Following negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), six major Internet service providers in the UK have signed a memorandum of understanding with British music industry group BPI and the Motion Picture Association to curb illegal peer-to-peer file sharing significantly within two to three years. 

The agreement is particularly significant because it marks the first time that ISPs will be "required to work with music and other rights holders" to fight digital piracy. The ISPs, which include BSkyB, BT, Virgin, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Tiscali, will launch a pilot program that begins by sending warning letters to individuals that have been identified as suspected copyright infringers.

British telecom regulator Ofcom has been charged with overseeing the process and working with the parties to develop and approve a Code of Practice within four months that determines what actions should be taken against alleged "repeat offenders," i.e. suspension or cancellation of users' Internet accounts or criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, while the British government says it prefers voluntary industry-led efforts, BERR is continuing to explore what it calls a co-regulatory approach that could lead to legislation. Among the regulatory options being considered by the government are:

• Requiring ISPs to provide personal data relating to a given IP address to rights holders on request, without them needing to go to Court.
• Requiring ISPs to take direct action against users who are identified by the rights holder as infringing copyright through file sharing.
• Requiring that ISPs allow the installation of filtering equipment that will block infringing content, or requiring ISPs themselves to install such filtering equipment.
• Allocating a third party body to consider evidence provided by rights holders and to direct ISPs to take action against individual users as required, or to take action directly against individual users.

BERR is seeking comment on the proposed options between now and October 30th; more information can be found in the consultation document released by the government. The 66-page PDF is available for download here.

p.s. We've previously written these posts about ISPs in the U.S. cooperating with the entertainment industry to police for copyright violations.

Tags: BPI, copyright, Europe, File Sharing, MPAA, Ofcom, P2P, piracy, UK