Pirates might have let out a sigh of relief after the government said it wouldn’t force ISPs to disconnect pirates caught filesharing, but we now know why: it wants them on a government watch list instead.
Communications minister Lord Carter has just released his Digital Britain report, and one of his key recommendations was that ISPs should collect “anonymised” information on P2P pirates, and then warn them “that their conduct is unlawful”.
That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to us – anonymous information, but not so anonymous that they can’t find out who you are and send you a slap on the wrist letter.
Still, it’s a little less extreme than the old three strikes and out proposal, no doubt because of the hostility it was met with by ISPs, who understandably didn’t fancy having the job of policing the internet fobbed off on them. The report is only an interim version – the final version is out in June – so this won’t make it to bill stage for some time, but we’ll keep you posted.
Out TBC | £TBC | Direct.gov.uk (Via ISPreview)
