Right to reply: Digital Economy Act must avoid bullying tactics
- Added:
- Apr 12, 2010
The new Digital Economy Act has now become law, meaning file sharers who are deemed to be infringing copyright laws could be given a lifetime ban from the web. In this right to reply article, Deborah Prince, Head of Legal Affairs, Which?, warns that copyright holders should avoid the guilty until proven innocent approach adopted in the past.
We’re in favour of the proportionate and graduated response advocated by the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) to tackle illegal file sharing and hope the Bill will clarify the subject for copyright holders and consumers alike.
We’ve been highly critical of law firms* who have sent bullying letters demanding payment upfront from people who, they claim, have illegally downloaded their clients’ copyrighted material from the internet. This ‘guilty until proven innocent’ practice must be stopped.
The DEB should ensure that copyright owners take a sensible and fair approach to infringement and do away with the heavy-handed tactics used by certain organisations to date.
In the meantime, we urge the estimated five million people in the UK who have unsecured wireless networks to secure their connections immediately. This will stop them from being wrongly blamed for any illegal activity.
Which? has produced advice for people who have been accused of illegal file sharing.
*Which? complained to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) in December 2008 about law firm Davenport Lyons’ conduct in pursuing claims of illegal online file sharing. The SRA confirmed on 4 March 2010 that it has referred two Davenport Lyons partners (one who has since left the firm) to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
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