The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) must be wondering what the heck is going on across the pond in the UK. After years of trying to find the right solution to dealing with piracy, they are going to send citizens letters that are the equivalent to telling your dog who just pooped on the carpet, Bad Dog !
If someone is a consistent downloader of pirated content, they will receive up to four letters telling them that what they are doing is illegal, and point them to alternatives that are paid options.
Here is where the MPAA and RIAA must be going nuts, if the user decides to ignore all the letters, there will be nothing done, no sanctions, nothing.
The Telegraph covered the story here:
People in the UK who persistently download and share pirated content online will start receiving warning letters from their internet service providers (ISPs) from next year.
Internet account holders whose connections are believed to have been used to infringe copyright could reportedly receive up to four warning letters (via email) per year. However, there will be no sanctions for people who decide to ignore the letters.
The aim of the letters is to boost consumer awareness of the wide array of legitimate online content services and help reduce online copyright infringement, according to a group of representatives from the UK’s creative industries and major ISPs.
The warning system, known as Creative Content UK (formerly VCAP), is the result of years of negotiations between ISPs and industry bodies representing the UK’s creative industries, including the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry).
Read the full article here
If one were to put on their conspiracy hat, could this be a Trojan horse ? You start sending all these letters, you have the names then of the people who ignored them. The content creators could go back to a judge or regulator and say,”We have proof that Bob Smithington has been pirating our content, he got letters and ignored them purposely because he thought there was no penalty. Aha, we tricked you this was all a set up and now we have proof that you are not misguided or did not know it was illegal. We have proven to regulators that when there is no penalty, piracy will go unchecked and run rampant.”
