The UK Government plans to increase the maximum prison sentence for online copyright infringement to ten years.
The current maximum of two years is not enough to deter infringers, lawmakers argue.
The new proposal follows a suggestion put forward in a study commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) earlier this year.
The study concluded that the criminal sanctions for copyright infringement available under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) could be amended to bring them into line with related offenses, such as counterfeiting.
Before implementing the changes the Government launched a public consultation, asking for comments and advice. While the responses have yet to be made public, TF has heard from two prominent groups that are speaking out against an extension.
The British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA) shared a copy of their recommendations with TF. The group’s main conclusion is that changes to the current law are not needed.
According to the group the prison term extension is not acceptable because the punishment would be too harsh.
“…legitimate means to tackle large-scale commercial scale online copyright infringement are already available and currently being used, and the suggested sentence of 10 years seems disproportionate,” the group writes.
In addition, BILETA argues that the proposal is not affordable, not feasible and incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
https://torrentfreak.com/legal-scholars-warn-against-10-year-prison-for-online-pirates-150815/