Proposals to cut off people who persistently download files illegally from the Internet have been washing around for several years now, but today Lord Mandelson, the UK government’s secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, laid out plans to introduce tough measures to combat illegal filesharing.

Opposed by leading ISPs, who fear that they will be forced to introduce costly and inconvenient monitoring and recording systems, Lord Mandelson did say that he had “no expectation of mass suspensions”, instead outlining a “three strikes” approach whereby persistent offenders would still have the right to appeal if cut off from the Net.

Alongside tough penalties for illegal downloading, a more relaxed copyright law could be rolled out (though it would have to be approved in Europe) which could mean putting CDs onto PMPs and sharing music between family members would actually be lawful.

Mandelson said that the common expectation that content should be free to download was “morally as well as economically unsustainable”, admitting that legislation alone would not solve the problem but that education and improved, cheaper legal download services needed to be implemented.

Via

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