Illegal file sharers could soon be hit hard by the government

As many as 7 million people in the UK could soon become criminals follow an announcement by Lord Mandelson indicating that tough new measures could soon be put in place in order to prevent people from file sharing.

Serious fines of as much as £50 000 will be issued to those who continuously download illegal material whilst others could have internet restrictions put in place or possible even have their internet blocked.

Telecoms watchdog, Ofcom could have its powers extended to allow it to find and send warnings to systems that have been found to be transferring files illegally under this new law. The possible blocking of an internet account would be the most basic result of ignoring an issued warning, whilst those continuing to offend would be issue with massive fines.

If these new laws come into effect it would mean that those caught committing shoplifting or petty theft crimes offline would receive a lighter sentence than those caught sharing or copying illegal file content.

Many believe that this latest announcement by Lord Mandelson comes following a meeting with David Geffen, a well known name in the film and music industry and a big anti file-sharing advocate. The introduction of these new laws have been heavily criticised as a complete waste of money by everyone from the UK pirate party to the national newspapers.

Shane Richmond, the Communities’ editor at the Telegraph.co.uk said “Over the last decade and more we’ve seen numerous attempts to stop file-sharing and not one has worked. This won’t work either because technology will stay ahead of attempts to control it, and if prosecutions do occur they will not deter the committed downloader.”

The government has so far not release any hard legislation and information as to how it intends to combat piracy online.

Source – UK Cheap Broadband