Old dogs and new tricks: why the content industries are the real pirates

The big business interests in film and music are lobbying both national governments and supra-national bodies, such as the EU, with a range of draconian proposals designed to entrench 20th century copyright in the digital age.

To give the new laws teeth it's being proposed that ISPs at least be forced to grass-up (assist law enforcement officials to apprehend) so-called 'pirates' in return for immunity.  With some proposals ISPs may actually become liable for any copyright theft undertaken across their networks. Whatever the recipe, the thrust is the same: that one industry (ISPs and telcos) be made to expensively enforce the unsupportable business model of another by chasing down its own customers!  It's absurd, but if the recent past is anything to go by the real pirates in this long-running piece of Kafkaesque content (available free) will get away with it and will see their oppressive and, ultimately self-defeating, proposals become law.

Maybe, though...  just maybe, the battle will expose how avaricious and tottering the content edifice actually is and public rage will see a complete end to it.  There's still time and we can hope.

First the charge sheet (ours, not theirs).

The US is developing an international trade agreement designed to end Internet privacy worldwide and impose a global ban on “unauthorized information exchanges” such as P2P links repositories.  Controversial whistle-blower site Wikileaks this weekend posted a PDF copy of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement discussion paper presented last October by US Trade Representative Susan Schwab to potential signatories Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, and the European Commission.

The document explicitly aims to “criminalize the non-profit facilitation” of “unauthorized” file-sharing and requires ISPs in participating nations to hand over subscriber information on request. The treaty would also ban anti-circumvention measures designed to protect online privacy or flout DRM protections. International trade representatives could give a green light to draft the treaty as early as the July G-8 summit.

“The proliferation of infringements of intellectual property rights, particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy, poses an ever-increasing threat to the sustainable development of the world economy,” the discussion paper reads. It goes on to claim IPR violations discourage innovation, fund organized crime, deprive governments of tax revenue and threaten consumer safety. The proposal aims to quash questions of jurisdiction - currently keeping notorious P2P search engine The Pirate Bay alive and well despite the best efforts of US copyright holders - by calling for “international enforcement cooperation ... regardless of the location of the right holder or the origination of the infringing item.”

Meanwhile in France, lawmakers have the enthusiastic backing of President Sarkozy in their efforts to shepherd what's being called the Olivennes bill. Due to become law this summer, the legislation will allow French officials to actually cut off the broadband connections of people who illegally download films or music over the Internet.

In fact the law is the result of an old-fashioned Gallic stitch-up. The big content companies have got their oppressive copyright laws in return for accepting a version of the old 'cultural quota" wheeze especially brought back, Indiana Jones-style, for the Internet.

Under the 'three strikes' rule (a strangely Anglo-Saxon nomenclature given the sensitivities) offenders get email warnings and then get their accounts closed. Meanwhile  (in return) entertainment companies will end annoying copyright protection on French material so that  music and video bought online can be played on any device (if the new regs work there would be less need for the DRM protection).

Now the French think they're going to export this outrageous imposition. According to Sarkozy: "Everywhere in the United States, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, professionals and governments have tried for years to find the 'grail' to fight the problem of Internet piracy. We are the first, in France, to form a big national alliance around concrete and effective proposals."

M. Olivennes has already been off promoting his legislation in Canada and claims to have had a good response.

Spurred on by the Franch example, the European Union is also minded to have a dabble.