Torrent Freak reports
All it took yesterday was a single article to trigger off a tidal wave of copycat reports across dozens of sites including the mainstream RT.com. Just to be absolutely clear Britain HAS NOT decriminalized file-sharing and to suggest otherwise only puts people at unnecessary risk. File-sharing remains ILLEGAL in the UK, guaranteed.
From next year people in the UK can download and share whatever they like. Movies, music and video games. You name it it's a free-for-all download bonanza with zero consequences other than four friendly letters asking people to try Netflix and Spotify.
In fact, the UK government has even gone as far as decriminalizing online copyright infringement entirely, despite risking the wrath of every intellectual property owner in the land.
That was the message doing the rounds yesterday in the media, starting on VG247 and going on to overload Reddit and dozens of other sites. Even Russia's RT.com got in on the fun.
Except it's not fun at all. It's completely untrue on countless levels and to suggest otherwise puts people at risk. Let's be absolutely clear here. Copyright infringement, whether that's on file-sharing networks or elsewhere, is ILLEGAL in the UK. Nothing, repeat NOTHING, has changed.
As detailed in our previous article, VCAP is a voluntary (that's the 'V' part) agreement between some rightsholders and a few ISPs to send some informational letters to people observed infringing copyright.
This means that the mainstream music labels and the major Hollywood studios will soon have an extra option to reach out to UK Internet users. However, whenever they want to today, tomorrow or next year any of the copyright holders involved in VCAP can still file a lawsuit or seek police action against ANYONE engaged in illegal file-sharing FACT.
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A new scheme aimed at redeeming the UK's illegal file-sharers from their law-breaking ways will see emails sent out to persistent offenders from next year.
The government-brokered Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP), agreed between ISPs and organisations representing content creators, hopes to educate web users, alerting them to file-sharing illegality.
Offenders will receive up to four emails a year under the scheme, but no further action will be taken if they send those warnings directly to the trash can and continue illegally downloading music, movies and books.
BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin have already signed up for the Vcap scheme with several smaller ISPs expected to do so soon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @09:35AM
By true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies, and in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer...is no.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @09:50AM
What's the bet that this scheme is intended to create a legal link between IP addresses and people who can be sued.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Sunday July 27 2014, @11:17AM
I know what you did last summer.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:46PM
I know you watched I Know What You Did Last Summer last Summer.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Lagg on Sunday July 27 2014, @09:51AM
I think that most people or at least the types that read sites such as soylent are too bitter and untrusting at this point to actually believe something like that if it were to be announced. Even if they did people would be digging deep for the catch because there always is one even when it seems good on its surface. Plus it wouldn't exactly be good news per se even if it was completely true because despite the black and white approach people take for this they often don't think of what total freedom as they define it implies.
Sure it would be great for sharing movies and music but it probably wouldn't end there. I for one don't want to see companies able to break the CC attribution license or any similar license with an attribution clause for example. Those clauses are often a big part of incentive for people to make free music and open source stuff. It's even a big part of it for me because I like knowing that my stuff is enjoyed and all I ask is for it to be mentioned that I wrote it. You can call it egotistical but that's pretty much what most people who use these licenses feel and like it or not ego points are the currency of the free and open source community, code or otherwise. Total freedom (which kind of seems like another way of saying "no more copyright" in this context) would mean that companies or asshat individuals are actually getting encouragement to not abide by those licenses because there's no reason to.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday July 27 2014, @11:48AM
A softening of stance? More like a license to print money.
[1] And to make this clear, civil cases in the UK do NOT have a jury except in cases of slander/libel, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and/or fraud, and even then the judge in the case can override that right. The only person the media company needs to convince is the judge.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday July 27 2014, @02:37PM
I was under the impression the new law just stops allowing them to terminate your internet connection without a trial. To use a car analogy, it's that they can no longer take your car away if you're suspected of bank robbery.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:45PM
The flip side is that the media companies have now moved the matter firmly into the civil domain, where copyright actually belongs from a legal perspective, so they will basically be suing purely for monetary damages - almost certainly what they really wanted out of the deal. They might claim it doesn't really go far enough while they continue to push for even stronger legislation, but I can't imagine that they see this as anything other than a major victory, not to mention one that will probably turn out to be fairly lucrative once they inevitably start taking recipients of multiple letters to court.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @03:39PM
When did Putin's propaganda ministry become "mainstream?"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday July 27 2014, @06:09PM
Came here to post the same thing. Beaten to the punch.
http://www.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php?page=all [cjr.org]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/putin-fights-war-of-images-and-propaganda-with-russia-today-channel-a-916162.html [spiegel.de]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2014, @07:05PM
Outside of never criticizing the Russian regime, RT (Russian Television) is a reliable source.
Al Jazeera, whose headquarters are in Doha, Qatar, is also a trustworthy source of information--and note they never take a negative stance re: Qatari politics.
I think I see a pattern.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 28 2014, @07:45AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @01:42PM
As long as cnn and fox are considered news I guess.
Btw, to get any sense of reality of what is actually going on somewhere of interest to US/West - Russia, I have to read western media, RT and aljazeera, with the latter usually landing somewhere in the middle.
e.g. in the case of the Ukraine there's an incredible amount of flamebait everywhere (except al jazeera, they probably don't care enough). Some western 'news' papers had a big headline recently with 'Russia sabotages airplane crash investigation' and then somewhere in small print buried under a few clicks: 'says some guy from some country a few 1000 miles away with not a single piece of evidence to back it up'.
(Score: 1) by chewbacon on Sunday July 27 2014, @04:47PM
If it's on the internet it has to be true, right? I saw a talking dog the other day wanting maple bacon. Explain that! HE WAS CLEARLY TALKING ABOUT MAPLE FUCKING BACON! If that isn't true, then I don't believe in anything anymore.
(Score: 1) by arslan on Monday July 28 2014, @02:10AM
You joke, but I wouldn't be surprised.. there's videos of dogs talking all over the net, here's a pug saying I love you... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8feOgptMZrg [youtube.com]