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Following on from an almost year-long consultation on the matter, the UK government has decided that two-year maximum prison sentences for those caught sharing copyrighted material online might not be enough, and now wants to push for a ten-year maximum sentence instead.
According to an Intellectual Property Office report, this is partially down to the fact that the penalty for physical copyright infringement is ten years, so an increased sentence for online pirates would bring the two more in-line: “These offences are currently punishable by a maximum of two years' imprisonment. By comparison, the maximum custodial sentence for infringement in respect of physical goods is 10 years”.
“In July 2015, the government consulted on proposed changes to the maximum term for online copyright infringement, increasing it from two to 10 years to make it consistent with the penalty for physical copyright infringement”. Apparently this new ten-year sentence has been settled on despite objections from the Open Rights Group (ORG), amongst others.
However, The Inquirer got in touch with ORG for comment on the matter, who noted that while the maximum sentence for online piracy could increase, the minister has committed to narrowing the scope of the offence: “We note that the minister has committed to narrowing the scope of the offence. We need to see that it relates to genuinely commercial infringements,” said Jim Killock, executive director at the ORG.
It is also worth noting that the Intellectual Property Office report on this matter notes that a “response system” is in place that will give infringers a warning, likely in the form of a cease and desist, before they get hit with criminal charges.
KitGuru Says: The UK government has been making a lot of effort to crack down on piracy in the last few years and it looks like that isn't slowing down any time soon. There are still a few stages this proposal has to go through first before it becomes law anyway so we should get more details later on.
its funny how years gone by the considered tape to the the end of music industry due to the easy of copying but its still going strong what 50 years later piracy is going to happen in most peoples lives its not going to stop
Wow, just think killing a few politicans would bring a smaller sentence than the maximum for copyright theft. They obviously have their heads screwed on backwards when they decide what’s more heinous..
Think of all the child molestors over there who get less time then this! All because you stole a crappy song worth tree dollars and fiddy cents at most.
This is perverse.
There is no way to catch you pirating if you use a VPN in another country. They can not stop this. No way. It’s too easy to hide yourself…. VPNs and Tor are especially that useful for porn…
You get less for murder or armed robbery in some countries!
Absolutely ridiculous and it is time Judges bring back common sense.
Let’s say you are caught downloading a song, movie or game the penalty should be only 3 times that of what the item costs, first is to pay for the product itself, second is to pay the fine, third is to pay for the so called loss in revenue. Problem solved!
Instead we have mum and dads paying hundreds of thousands in fines, which means they are now bankrupt and are useless to society. Or they end up in prison once again being useless to society and costing tax payers even more money to keep them in there.
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Well, you have to do something when you can no longer banish people to another continent for petty crimes. Good to see that the UK hasn’t learned much in that area in the past few centuries.
Debt & Profit!!!! Our leaders are insane.
Sheople are still in abundance.
You wanna know why? Its because many politicians are pedophiles themselves.
“Three dollars and fiddy cents” to them is worth more than the life of child.
That is not an exaggeration, its the truth.
“Most people are no better than animals who do not have intelligence because they don’t use their intelligence, and to these men who control things behind the scenes, you are steaks on the table by choice and consent, and will always be ruled and manipulated and enslaved by people who do use their brains.”
Well there are going to be a lot of people going to jail when the new season of Game of Thrones starts. In fact, I can feel the Internet slowing down right now because of the all the season premier bittorrenting going on.
Why can’t you? I mean, if you airdrop someone to australia with no passport, how are they going to return? And if they do, just send them back again.
I think the Australian government wouldn’t appreciate that.
True, but not relevant. What are they going to do, declare open war?
I have a similar opinion about Obama’s promise to close Guantanamo.
He can do it. He’s hiding behind congress as an excuse. As commander-in-chief he could order the military personnel there to lock all the doors, shut off the power, and leave. Sure, there’d be all those prisoners locked in their cells, but that isn’t his concern. He’d have kept his promise. Congress can decide whether to send civilian government officers to re-open the base and save the prisoners.
Fortunately, governments don’t immediately go to war when they are discontent with the actions of another government.