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House of Lords Pass Controversial Internet Piracy Laws

18 March 2010

A recent article on the BBC website states that a new bill concerning internet piracy, specifically the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyright material.  Known as the Digital Economy Bill, it is expected to be fast tracked through the House of Commons so that it will be passed before the next election.

The Bill will give powers to the courts to shut down websites which are infringing copyright laws, as well as the power to suspend the internet accounts of people who download material illegally.

As one would expect, the new Bill has been welcomed by the music industry who have been fighting an on-going war with internet companies for a while now.  Music companies claim to lose millions or pounds in revenue due to the activities of illegal downloaders.

One concern over this bill is the problem in actually enforce it, tracking down a single computer and a single user can be very difficult and there are many ways to stop your computer being tracked.  As well as ways for people to use other peoples internet accounts and pass the blame onto them.

It will be interesting to see if this makes it through the House of Commons, with a Twitter campaign already in full flow.

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