The Open Rights Group warns of a new plan for a three strikes law in the UK. What is most concerning is that copyright infringement might only be the start of a list of possible offenses that could lead to a consumer being inadvertently booted off the net.
According to 38 Degrees (who is also hosting a petition) the risk arises from the rushed nature of the bill. I am not able to dig up much detail beyond what is available on the sites protesting the proposed law, i.e. breathless calls to arms. I suspect that the hurry has led to some overly vague wording, hence the concern about inadvertent or unjustified disconnection. I don’t know how accurate it is to compare this legislation to the French Hadopi, specifically its unconstitutionality. I also don’t know about likening it to the foiled NZ bill that would have equated accusation with guilt of infringement.
Don’t get me wrong, in general I find three strikes rules a bad idea. I tend to lump them in with active content filtering as being far too prone to unintended consequences. I would appreciate some more information, though, so the rhetoric we use to oppose this latest effort is well informed and well targeted.
The ORG has a petition which you can sign if you are a subject and concerned about this bill. They are also hosting a media event on October 2nd, details of which you can find linked from their post. Hopefully the event will provide some more detail on the issues to keep the debate well focused.
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