70% of British Public Oppose Disconnecting File-Sharers
Written by enigmax on October 19, 2009The results of a new poll reveal the extent of opposition to Lord Mandelson’s proposals for tough sanctions against alleged file-sharers. The survey, commissioned by the Open Rights Group, shows that not only is the public in favor of due process, but a third would be much less likely to vote for political parties supporting these proposals.
Driven largely by the big-label international music business, proposals for disconnecting alleged file-sharers are now common in many countries. Having achieved some kind of momentum in France, the lobbying shifted focus to the UK, with Lord Mandelson advocating harsh punishment for persistent infringers, or more accurately, those that are persistently accused.
Opposition to such plans are widespread, but until recently, public opinion hadn’t been tested in a measurable way. Today we have a much clearer idea, as results from a YouGov poll commissioned by the Open Rights Group have been released.
A significant 68% of those surveyed felt that individuals accused of illicit file-sharing should have the right to a fair trial before their accounts were disconnected or otherwise interfered with as punishment.
Just 16% of respondents said they would be happy for Internet users to have their accounts automatically suspended once their ISP had received “a number of accusations.”
While 44% said the proposals would not influence their vote, just under a third of respondents (31%) said they would be “much less likely” to vote for a political party that endorsed disconnection from the Internet without a trial. Just 7% said they were more likely to support a party bringing in such sanctions.
In this digital age, Internet connectivity is becoming more and more important for us to carry out everyday tasks, and as time presses on we all becoming more and more reliant on our gateway to the online world. So just how would disconnection affect the respondents ability to carry out various tasks?
19% of respondents said their ability to work and conduct their education would be completely disrupted following disconnection, with 23% labeling the disruption as “fair”.
When the focus is placed on processes such as online shopping or home banking, 30% said disconnection would completely disrupt their activities, with an additional 43% calling the problem caused as “fair”.
Jim Killock, executive director at the Open Rights Group, feels that the government is out of step.
“Our conclusion must be that this is a politically unwise move, that will be unpopular and a vote loser for its architects,” he said, noting that such measures will fail to meet their objectives. “[They] won’t make a single penny for artists, or help online music businesses get off the ground,” he added.
While the Open Rights Group is aware why the government has gone down this “disastrous” route, Killock says they are not prepared to watch the rights of the people being taken away.
“The right to freedom of expression, a fair trial, to be presumed innocent until proven guilty: and for proportionate punishments, these are basic principles on which democratic societies are built,” he said.
Finally Killock is calling for citizens to write to their MPs to support Tom Watson’s cross-party Early Day Motion on file sharing, which was featured here last week on TorrentFreak.
Previously: uTorrent Userbase Grows, Vuze takes a Dive
Next: Pirate Bay Appeal Postponed Till Summer 2010
75 Responses
Im in that 70% it is a pisstake , when will we pass Broadband as a human right!
I’m not voting!
#2!
I’m not voting!
#2!
“Fair” to be accused without proof of something that isn’t a actual “crime”?
“Fair” to be used as a pawn in a lobby war?
“Fair” to be guilty without a chance to be trialed?
That isn’t my definition of “Fair”, but defines perfectly the opposite.
Good luck Britain.
Just an article supporting the story http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/top-stories/427094/broadband-speed-more-important-than-nearby-pub
getting disconnected because someone complained you shared a file or downloaded a file isnt fair. because your wifi can get jacked and someone downloads a file then you get punished etc.. what about if your at a motel and use there wifi and download a file.. should they get disconnected ? Life is not fair, goverment is not Fair the end
Just 70% ?? Where is the rest ??
“A significant 68% of those surveyed felt that individuals accused of illicit file-sharing should have the right to a fair trial before their accounts were disconnected or otherwise interfered with as punishment.”
I´m guessing that´s the 68% of those surveyed, who are into filesahring.
Just saying…
@8 Nef
I know many people who are against file-sharing and say that Broadband access should be a fundamental right for EVERY human being. I agree with them on this point, if they get it wrong, then some people will have no business. Think what would happen to a company that is 100% internet based, and a mix-up meant they had no business till they could reverse the changes, the government wouldn’t compensate them for that!
Just to point out something… 68% doesn’t equal 70%.
Lord Mandelson is a bigger crook than any filesharer !
I hate to be the one to point this out, but a survey commissioned by the open rights group is just a biased as a poll commissioned by the riaa
sorry, that should read “…is just as biased as a poll…”
A significant 68% of those surveyed felt that individuals accused of illicit file-sharing should have the right to a fair trial before their accounts were disconnected or otherwise interfered with as punishment.
The big media comopanies should pay for trying to do things like this.there are so many of us out there who are or will be boycotting your krappy industry.
Just to clarify:
When the focus is placed on processes such as online shopping or home banking, 43% said if they were disconnected, they would be disrupted a “fair amount”.
68% of everyone surveyed were in favour of a right to trial, rather than automated procedures.
what a crock – where’s the percenatge that answered all questions in this poll and did not have any indepth knowledge on the topic, that would be a more interesting stat, and atleast give some credibility to the poll
it does not even give you any data on WHO they asked
(@ #16 GG)
“it does not even give you any data on WHO they asked”
Oh come on, get real folks.
IT´S JUST A POLL. Which translates to: doesn´t actually mean a thing.
Polls are a modern day pest.
“70% of british public” oppose disconnecting file-sharers. Really?
And how exactly does one get from asking a few hundred (or even a few thousand, but i doubt that) more or less randoms people to “70% of british public”? Math? Nope.
Believe.
Every article about any poll should start like this: “Fun fact! A recent poll says that-”
Get my drift?
Yep, due to the fact that this is by no means a conclusive poll of *every* single british person capable of opinion on the matter, this should be taken with a large pinch of salt. Sample size *is* important, no matter how much the results are twisted into propaganda.
Something tells me it’s a slow news day…
A simple Google shows that 42.7% / 47.3% / 53% / 80% / 83% / 85.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot… – what makes you think this poll will be any different?
The “fair” is a Brit thing.
In this case, it means “some”.
Some people would be very disrupted by lack of internet, some people would suffer a “fair amount” of disruption.
Where it says “fair” read it as “quite a bit”.
Really this is not normal…
If you want to read about this from a less biased source then read at.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/18/public-poll-filesharers-internet-ban
.
.
.
http://www.wcamclub.com
what a surprise the majority but of cause can’t have maderson friends got out of business even if means raping every man wife and child.
live in a democracy ?
define democracy ?
@22 – its the same article.. I don’t see any bias in either. Maybe I just need my glasses on eh.
@ Reasoned Mind
Good choice of words, less biased lol
@ 8 Nef
No poll is truly neutral unless you can get a sample that’s 1- completely random and 2- large.
However, the articles I’ve read, including the one Mr Reasoned Mind proposed, don’t say a word on how that survey was conducted.
This doesn’t mean the poll is biased or crappy. The results may serve as a starting point where a further survey with stricter parameters should be taken. Again, depending on how the sample was chosen there’d be no need for this.
That said, I do believe those results are near the real thing. In fact, I believe it’s more than 70% from what I’ve seen, specially because the great majority of people I know use p2p regularly to download songs. From students to teachers, from lower employees to company owners most of people have the habit of downloading once in a while. Those are the ones that are being targeted, heavy p2p users are already out of reach.
I doubt those people would be in favor of being disconnected automatically because of a few songs they downloaded. I also doubt they find it fair to charge $80k for 1 song downloaded. I also doubt they’ll stop buying their favorite artists media because they download songs.
The government should keep its nose out of this. The problem lies within the business model of the media industry, not in the laws. The current laws are already enough, if carried out rightly.
“When injustice becomes law,
Rebellion becomes duty”
;)
Mostly I’m worried that 32% of people seem to be against the right to a fair trial!!
Jesus…where the crap are we living..
“Our conclusion must be that this is a politically unwise move, that will be unpopular and a vote loser for its architects,”
Trouble is Mandelson, being in the House of Lords, is unelected.
Mandelson is not an elected member of parliament. not is the current UK prime minister. Speaking about democracy in the UK is an absurdity. Warmongers and crooks. Just open any British news paper and count how many ministers are facing police inquiry. You will get the picture of a corrupted country to its core.
All thanks to Tony Bliar
As our right disappear, do not forget to vote for the Pirate party.
And 70% of those in jail oppose the penal system. And 70% of those with a shred of decency or self respect oppose pornography. Is this really news? Of course those doing it oppose it being taken away…sheesh.
@29: It seems spelling and grammar aren’t particularly strong in the UK either.
As for the prime minister not being an elected member of parliament: does it matter? If you could have chosen between him and another bloke you didn’t want either would that make you feel better! It’s not as though *they* run the country anyway.
@31 Oct 19, 2009 at 16:32 by Foo:
It does matter. If people don’t say nothing, others may think that people don’t care, when they do care and a lot.
Even if a politician will rob as blind we still expect him to at least go through the motions to do it.
* through the proper motions to do it.
Just to clarify…
When they say “fair” they mean a “fair amount of disruption”, NOT that the punishment is “fair”.
The scary thing is almost a 3rd of people are quite happy to have anyone convicted based on an accusation by a corporation.
@35
Probably the elderly generation who don’t know what the internet is and think that all of the younger generation are criminals.
Gordon Brown is the duly elected MP for the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath and has been since 2005 – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkcaldy_and_Cowdenbeath.
There’s some information about YouGov’s methodology here: http://www.yougov.co.uk/about/about-methodology.asp
i cant download torrent from tpb.
is it with me or the tpb.
@36 – would agree with you except the yougov polls are carried out on their website, so people who are afraid of the internet are unlikely to make up 30% of the respondents.
17 Oct 19, 2009 at 14:23 by Nef
i think you actually find i was making the same point if not as eloquently as you, try active reading next time
@ reasoned, my friend i got a lot of time for you and your posts, but, the Guardian? ouch!
Its sad, in America we would never have that kind of voice. People here are oftentimes too easily persuaded to see eye-to-eye with the same political affiliation of the proposer. People here agree with anything as long as it comes out of the mouth of someone from a favorable party.
Yay us.
But hang on, TF you shouldn’t be saying 70% when its not quite 70%, bit misleading.
@42 Doctorjab
I’m pretty sure the poll itself will be wrong by more than 2%
We have to destroy these corporations of “”"entertainment”"” industry parasites before they destroy our society.
I’m a Pirate and Proud
Trust no government vote UK pirate party. Past and present governments have taken away our fundamental rights in courts with speed cameras. The naming of the driver this took away our right non self-incrimination
For Anonymous@23
Define democracy? 49% governed by 51%
Rabbit80@36
Don’t forget the silver surfers’
@44: yeah, let’s destroy them. then there’ll be nothing to steal. for the americans out there: this is irony.
“took away our right non self-incrimination”
Besides being almost unreadable, this is nonsense. You might as well say a witness that saw you stab someone “took away our right non self-incrimination”. Besides, that right does not exist in the UK.
@37: Since when does being an elected MP give you an automatic right to be PM? Do you want that indian bloke who is an MP to be our PM? There’d be riots in the street if that happened!
So 19% thought disconnection would be unfair, 23% thought it would be fair. That leaves 58% who would probably just search for an open WiFi in the area…
@48 I’ll just ignore the some what racist overtones….
Sadly in the UK being a MP does give you the right to be PM.
We do not vote for the PM, we vote for our local MP and whoever ends up with a majority could pick whoever they want as PM…as is currently the case.
…Yes it is a sh*t system, but there are much worse.
I am disconnected right now!! For a d/l of southpark! I just swiped my neighbours connection. I got two notes from my ISP and on the second they disconnected me for two weeks as of last friday. They said if I do it again I am disconnected for good. The ISP is “Cable and Wireless Guernsey”. Are they allowed to do this in the UK?!
Disconnect file sharing?
My doubt is increasing:
www. wi-fi. org/ news_articles. php? f= media_ news&news_ id= 909
(collapse spaces)
“The Wi-Fi Alliance is nearing completion of a new specification to enable Wi-Fi devices to connect to one another without joining a traditional home, office, or hotspot network.”
Quote:
“A side benefit of Wi-Fi Direct is that it can operate at higher speeds and greater distances…”
From what is understood, The Pirate Bay are in a bunker that is also apparently sovereign, and that focuses on ‘libre communications’… What if they became like that kiosk, only more powerful and using amplified wifi-direct broadcast, perhaps like an ISP might?
@ 51
Are they aware that you can watch southpark freely on their official website southparkstudios.com? And we all know if you can watch it then it is copyable….
LOL at Reasoned Mind talking about bias.
Hypocritical douchebag.
From what it looks like based on the information on how polls work on their site a little less then 160,000 (estimated) people voted against disconnecting without a trial.
That should be a large enough portion to have a good idea of the general consensus of Britain on this matter. Also it really can’t be biased since the people choose to sign up and the polls consist of most of the people on the site.
I checked based on the semi-current population of the UK that the amount of people who took this poll is roughly around .6% of the population.
I checked based on the semi-current population of the UK that the amount of people who took this poll is roughly around .4% of the population.
If I lost access to the Internet, I’d prolly break down completely …
im interested why
“3 Oct 19, 2009 at 12:48 by me
I’m not voting!
#2!
”
What exactly do YOU gain by NOT Voting ?
you are aware that if hyatheticly you and every single person in the UK able to vote, actually voted for say the UK pirate party, that means they and they alone will get all local seats on the councils and nore so ALL the seats of the house of commons, and so become the leading party.
that means they would have no choice but to come up with a working real agenda for change.
if the existing PMs do not get local election seats they cant be in the Govt, thats how the sytems works… SO every single vote not cast is a win for the sitting PM as noones voted them off, your in favour of the old PMs then i take it.
so much so you cant be bothered to take 10 minutes to walk to your local voting station and actually vote on the day for say the pirate party or put it another way, not the labour or conservatives….
or perhaps you have a real convincing reason not to vote assuming you currently have the right to do so OC.
a non vote is a vote for the current MP nad opposition party…
Yup – a survey can “prove” anything you want it to.
The important thing when reading about a survey is to check:
Who paid for it?
That ususally explains the findings.
Surveys is among the biggest scams going today…
sorry thats MPs not PMs ;)
OC any elected MP can be chosen to become there partys PM if they win the most seats…
so make sure the pirate party have condidates in all the local seats and these one of candidates could be YOU, if you make the effort….. and join the party ASAP and organise the mass action TODAY.
“60 Oct 20, 2009 at 12:24 by Cordelia
Yup – a survey can “prove” anything you want it to.
The important thing when reading about a survey is to check:
Who paid for it?
That ususally explains the findings.
Surveys is among the biggest scams going today…
”
that may be true or not , but the thing your missing is a YouGov poll commissioned by anyone IS the standard by which all polls are set.
if its good enough for the Govt it cant be said to be not good enough for others such as The ORG.
after all the ORG are the people that are fighting for your rights on a very tight budget they get from ordinary people, infact its run by people just like You, you dont like how its run then you can put some time and effort in and change it.
70% thats more then people who votes for the prime minister sounds like bull to me
“63 Oct 20, 2009 at 12:37 by boowho
70% thats more then people who votes for the prime minister sounds like bull to me
”
Do you know what yout talking about there boowho?
the people that so called voted for the PM ARE the labour MPs in his party, no one else.
they wanted him as their party leader, just as they wantign b-liar before, how he twisted their arms to get their vote is another matter OC…
incase you cant be bothered to click the links and read on on ORG
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/
they are one of the few along with NoDPI etc that are fighting to stop mass surveillance and the like of DPI for commercial profit such as phorm …
WHAT DID YOU DO to Engage and inform
and educate your friends and family…
ORG are also the people that setup the volunteer Election Watch
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2007/election-watch-2007-devote-your-day-to-democracy/
“Election Watch 2007 – Devote your day to democracy!
Becky Hogge, 07 March 2007
Doing anything exciting on election day? ORG is looking for volunteers to “devote their day to democracy” and become ORG’s Electoral Commission accredited election observers for the e-voting pilots on Thursday 3 May.
We’ll provide you with full instructions on the kind of things that will be expected of you on the day. We’ll also supply a factsheet of what to look out for in each of the different pilots. We’ll expect you to be travelling around the pilot area during the day, and to turnaround a quick report for us afterwards.
If you live in or around the eleven pilot areas (or are willing to travel there) and you’d like to help out, please let us know. Sign up to our pledge on Pledgebank – we’re using a beta feature that lets you input which of the pilot areas you’re volunteering for. The image on the right shows where volunteers have already signed up.
—-
[...] Thanks to everyone who made the event run so smoothly, thanks to all the local supporters who showed up afterwards to celebrate with us and thanks to Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd for giving us the financial support to stage the event….
weeeell what you say about that title nascar boy? still not convinced copyright laws are used against our liberties? hm..
And like in France, the Government will pass buy this kind of studies and just argue with “My god illegal downloading wil kill ou culture, its the best thing to do even though its not perfect”.
Shitty times
three strikes = what could become the most epic fail in the history of the internet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/21/in_the_city_pirate_party_panel/page2.html
AND YET EVERY POLL THAT COMES OUT PEOPLE ANSWER TO ONE OF THE THREE OR FOUR TOP PARTIES, all of which disrespect them. WHY? Why do people do this? The government is raping you from all ideological backgrounds yet people still choose on of the 3 Prime Evils. Turn away from these mainstream parties before it’s too late. They are protecting their assets from the new generation which will be paying in blood and age for the excessive bureaucracy and criminal enterprises that the government has produced. Most of the aged want to feed off the youth. They do this by oppression with laws upon laws to restrict YOU. Throw them down. Their numbers increase as they age. They will outnumber the youth and the pro-freedom movement by 5 to 1 in the future and newer generations will be paying for it with their lives. Their entire lives. This is why the media is controlled. This is why they are all older people in it.
who this is brand new! look at:
http://api.theghostbay.org/
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1559396/government-backs-cutting-filesharers
“Government backs down on cutting off filesharers
Court orders now needed
By Alexandra Pullin
Wednesday, 21 October 2009, 16:24
CULTURE SECRETARY Ben Bradshaw has revealed that, due to strong opposition, measures to tackle illegal filesharing will be watered down.
Under the new scheme copyright holders will need a court order before they can punish persistent illegal filesharers.
This differs from the action that had been suggested by business secretary Lord Mandelson earlier this year, coincidentally just after having spent time as a guest of music publisher David Geffen in Greece.
Princess Mandy had said that Internet service providers would be forced to hand over to music companies and film studios information on customers who used illegal filesharing sites so that they could take action.
This original tactic was seen by many as being too heavy-handed. Now those targeted would also have the right to appeal.
Bradshaw told the House of Common’s culture, media and sport committee that this measure is to protect innocent people who could be cut off from the Internet ‘willy nilly’, merely if they were accused.
…..
“
I’m voting for The Pirate Party, and after all the Sky News and BBC News publicity they’ve been getting recently, I’m sure loads of others will too!
must suck to live in England. Btw even if i would be disconected not like i’m gonna start buying stuff lol i’d always find a way to get pirated copies of music, movies and games i want
I can guarantee most of these anti file sharing groups will have kids and their kids will be downloading all sorts of stuff and wont get in trouble
I love that this is “to ensure artists get paid” Record labels often pay their artists next to nothing. Give me the option to give the artist the 80p they’d make if I buy a cd and cut out the major label completely and I’d be happy to give the artist their money. Thing is the artist doesn’t get any royalties because their label has cut off the fans connection infact its likely to stop the fan buying tickets or ordering merchandise from the website. Alongside the fan probably being disenchanted anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBkuiChImb8
This is more relavent than ever !
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