Came across this article:

US government finally admits most piracy estimates are bogus

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We've all seen the studies trumpeting massive losses to the US economy from piracy. One famous figure, used literally for decades by rightsholders and the government, said that 750,000 jobs and up to $250 billion a year could be lost in the US economy thanks to IP infringement. A couple years ago, we thoroughly debunked that figure. For years, Business Software Alliance reports on software piracy assumed that each illicit copy was a lost sale. And the MPAA's own commissioned study on movie piracy turned out to overstate collegiate downloading by a factor of three.

Can we trust any of these claims about piracy?

The US doesn't think so. In a new report out yesterday, the government's own internal watchdog took a close look at "efforts to quantify the economic effects of counterfeit and pirated goods." After examining all the data and consulting with numerous experts inside and outside of government, the Government Accountability Office concluded (PDF) that it is "difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the economy-wide impacts."

It's a fairly long article with lots of interesting links off it.

Now then... in addition to that, the UK has recently passed the Digital Economy Bill (conveniently about 5 minutes before Parliament was dissolved). A couple of major points emerge in relation to copyright and piracy and stuff:

The Act includes provisions about:

- the online infringement of copyright, including copyright and performers’ rights and about penalties for infringement
[...]
- amendment of the Communications Act 2003 requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to disclose details of customers - who repeatedly infringe copyright, on production of sufficient evidence, with a possible fine of £250,000 for non-compliance
- the requirement that ISPs block access to sites that allow "substantial" infringement[4]

The bill proposes further measures allowing for the "temporary suspension" of Internet connections for repeat infringers of copyright following warnings from their ISP.


Other provisions in the bill include an amendment to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to increase the criminal liability for "making or dealing with infringing articles" and "making, dealing with or using illicit recordings" to a maximum of £50,000.
ISPs themselves have had varying reactions - Sky support it fully, Talk Talk are dead set against it and Virgin Media are sitting on the fence.

Thoughts?

-- Edited by ddvmor on Thursday 22nd of April 2010 08:19:12 AM