Culture secretary revises file sharing target

Posted on 10 Jul 2009 at 09:57

Ben Bradshaw, the new Culture Secretary, has quietly revised the government’s target for reducing the volume of illicit, p2p file sharing in the UK.

The Digital Britain report, which was published in June under the auspices of Bradshaw’s predecessor, set the objective of reducing the level of illicit file sharing by as much as 80% over the next two year.

But Bradshaw clearly thinks that is too ambitious. In a letter to Liberal Democrat culture spokesman Don Foster, leaked to The Times, he set out “a more constructive approach”.

The government, he said, should “to take as our starting point the time at which obligations on internet service providers take effect”.

In all likelihood that adds two years to the original target. New laws requiring ISPs to begin maintaining records of p2p activity and to warn the most active file sharers are unlikely to come into force in 2010. Stronger laws, compelling ISPs to take direct action against persistent offenders, will not come into effect for at least 12 months after that.

Author: Simon Aughton

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