United Kingdom: A watchdog said that copyright holders should seek a court order first before conducting activities to obtain the personal information of illegal file-sharers. This warning came after several indie filmmakers have filed copyright infringement lawsuit against thousands of people who allegedly downloaded illegal files.
Ofcom, an independent regulator for communication industries, said the legal proceeding should be followed to address the Internet piracy.
“The transfer of personal information and details should come from a court order. This is to protect the rights of online users when it comes to privacy laws”, the group said in a statement.
Last week, the government has passed a law called the Digital Economy Act which prohibits online activities that can breach the copyrights and punish companies and individuals who will commit Internet piracy.
Under the new law, Internet service providers (ISPs) are also required to immediately inform users about the allegations of illegal file-sharing, allowing them to challenge the accusation or settle the case with the copyright holders.
In a statement, the group said that “people should be provided with sufficient notification to challenge the accusation linking them to copyright infringement and should enjoy an access to effective appeal mechanism.”
The measure, which is implemented by Ofcom, also requires the group to produce a quarterly report showing the rate of illegal file-sharing activities in UK.
If the measure will fail to reduce the Internet piracy in the country by at least 75 percent this year, the government will allow ISPs to implement technical measures such as throttling Bittorrent data, slowing down the connection speeds, and impose Internet bans against illegal file-sharers.