The UK government appears to have put a lid on the possibility of a 'three strikes law' to tackle illegal unauthorised peer-to-peer file-sharing of copyright content – at least for now. The 'three strikes law' – so called because it would involve Internet service providers terminating persistent net pirates' Internet connections if they ignored two official warning letters – does not now appear to be the government's preferred option. The final Digital Britain report had been expected to back this approach championed by the music industry, but a spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said that the government was not in favour given that Internet access was now seen as valuable as other utilities such as water and electricity. The government is instead looking to build on the existing Memorandum of Understanding signed by all the major Internet service providers last year to secure their commitment to work towards a significant reduction in the illegal sharing of music and the development of legal music services.
The Digital Britain report has expressed a desired reduction of online piracy rates by 70-80%. To achieve this, the government said it would consult with Ofcom on legislative steps to reduce copyright infringement. Under the plans, Ofcom would need to notify account holders that their accounts appeared to have been used for copyright infringement, and Ofcom would then make available anonymised data to enable serious repeat offenders to be identified so that rights owners could issue proceedings and go after persistent infringers. If the 70% reduction is not achieved within a year, a number of technical measures will then be imposed on ISPs to block, cap bandwidth and filter content.
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