The UK recently enacted the Digital Economy Bill (Digital Economy Bill another report) to restrict music piracy by giving copyright holders the ability to “spy” on those infringing their rights via file sharing. The idea is that after being identified, the offending parties will then be disconnected from the Internet. In effect, this plan, which many in the U. S. champion, asks the ISPs to police copyrights by finding the identity of the pirates and shutting them off.
Torrentfreak.com, a site dedicated to bringing the latest news about BitTorrent and everything closely related to this popular filesharing protocol, notes the bill’s good intentions, but dismisses the new legislation as simply another misguided attempt to use DRM—digital rights management.
“It has already been shown numerous times that DRM has not prevented anyone from sharing files, and the Digital Economy Act – with all the extra powers it gives to copyright holders – wont be successful either,” writes Ernesto. “For those who don’t want to give up their habit of downloading copyrighted material, there are simply dozens of ways to download music and movies without being at risk. Much like DRM, the Act will not stop tech savvy file-sharers, it will only change the rules of the game.”
For a detailed report on why and how TorrentFreak.com believes that technology will render the bill useless read the story here.
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David M. Ross has been covering Nashville's music industry for over 25 years. dross@musicrow.comView Author Profile