How the anti-piracy measures included in its Digital Economy Bill could work in practice.

It is not only campaigners who are concerned by the anti-piracy measures included in the Digital Economy Bill, legal experts are also at a loss to explain how the government can sanction giving future ministers seemingly limitless powers.
Patrick Gardiner, Media Partner at international law firm, Eversheds, believes that Lord Mandelson is probably trying to ‘future-proof’ [...]

Hollywood movie studios are, for the first time, pressing Congress to pursue a ‘three strikes’ policy against internet pirates which could ultimately lead to disconnection for persistent offenders.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which is currently drafting proposals for Congress on how American broadband policy should [...]

Now the Government’s put a timetable in place for its plans to disconnect persistent online pirates, one ISP is considering a counter-attack that could see more than individual file-shares up in court. TalkTalk says it may resort to legal action if Lord Peter Mandelson continues with his plans – and it’s not the only one unhappy with the business secretary.

Peter Mandelson’s plans to crack down on illegal file-sharing have a critical flaw, according to a senior TalkTalk exec. Andrew Heaney, the group’s Executive Director of Strategy and Regulation, says the ease of hacking Wi-Fi broadband connections on the average UK street means millions of people would be left at risk to “superhighway robbery.”

Various musicians campaigned against peer-to-peer file-sharing in the States – but one band in particular gained an international notoriety that refuses to go away. While Napster has long been rebooted as a legal music downloading website, musicians in the UK are now queuing up to become Britain’s answer to Metallica – and one artist in particular is at the front of the line.

In Hull, when it comes to ISPs there’s only one game in town – and it’s cutting off suspected pirates without warning. Karoo, which is thought to be the only Internet Service Provider in the UK that’s adopted the policy, asks affected customers to sign a waiver before it’ll reconnect them.