50,000 Pound Maximum Fine Set for Illegal Filesharing

As part of the Digital Economy Bill readied by the government of the United Kingdom, copyright infringement instances would be fined by a maximum of GBP 50,000. The news was confirmed last day, and as per this development, the fine of 50,000 pound will be slapped on the persistent downloaders if they failed to heed to the cautions sent to them by their broadband providers.

It is also interesting to watch that the proposed anti-online piracy tactic also calls for certain responsibility from the side of the internet service providers operating in the United Kingdom. By this, the UK ISPs will have to contribute their portion into the anti-online illegal filesharing cause by issuing notifications to any customer that they suspected of indulging in the uncalled for act.

Another obligation that binds the broadband service providers is the maintaining of a record of the issued notices served to each suspected illegal downloader of online content. After noting the number of warning notices, the broadband providers are then required to inform the right holders such as record labels about it. Then it will be left to the discretion of the rightholders to seek a court order to move against the party further.

As a matter of fact, it was confirmed by Stephen Timms, the minister for Digital Britain that the offence of illegal filesharing would not be considered as a criminal offence. This means that there would be no instances of incarceration even for the most virulent illegal downloaders on the internet, with the maximum penalty being limited to GBP 50,000.

Timms explained the disconnection plans of the government at a morning briefing that if the rightholder of the content recognises a person to be indulging in persistent illegal downloading, he would be send a warning initially by the UK ISP concerned, and if the consumer was found to be not heeding to the notice, he will be subjected to be dealt with technical measures.