While the massive internet was developed to make content sharing across the world possible, it has also paved way for pirates to steal and use copyrighted information. According to the general etiquette on internet, content posted in any website is copyright protected unless it is specifically stated otherwise. Corporate companies that offer commercial products for sale are affected badly by online piracy. In order to keep the pirates in check, the UK government proposed Digital Economy Act (DEA) which is supposed to prevent online piracy and protect the work of creative workers.
DEA requirements
Originally, the Digital Economy Act (DEA) was formulated to ensure that creative industry is well protected from pirates and content theft. According to DEA, a lot of responsibilities rest on the shoulders of internet service providers (ISP). When the copyright infringement is detected, it is the responsibility of the ISP to narrow down the subscriber who can be charged for infringement. Several notes, letters, emails are then sent out to subscribers to indicate copyright infringement. In fact, ISPs send threatening letters to prevent subscribers from downloading copyright protected information. After a specific number of letters, legal action can be taken against subscribers for infringing copyrights.
DEA Controversies
Ever since the conception of DEA, there were protests from the experts that the idea is itself ill conceived. The law has been enacted in order to support giants in the media and music industries so that their sales don't go down due to pirated content. Illegal file sharing has cost these giants several millions and they want to put an end to it. Internet experts believe that file sharing is not illegal and it may be unlawful. However, this doesn't amount to loss in music and media industries in any direct way. Moreover, the DEA forces ISPs to burden their subscribers. The internet service providers are simply carriers and they shouldn't be forced to react to something that happened using their network.
DEA Fails To Capture Pirates And Punishes Innocents
The ultimate motive of DEA is to put an end to pirates, but instead, the law wrongfully punishes the innocents. To the benefit of the creative workers, the internet subscribers are wronged. After warning letters, many ISPs limit internet usage and ultimately force legal action against the subscribers. Wireless networks are very common in homes these days and wireless subscribers are often warned and charged because someone else was using the connection to download pirated content. Now, this is something that requires a lot of attention because you can't be forced to pay for something that you didn't do.
Furthermore, the DEA doesn't clearly indicate what it will do with the charges collected from innocents. Those subscribers whose networks indicate downloading of pirated content are assumed to be guilty until proven otherwise. Moreover, the innocent people have to pay £20 just to file their appeal. This is very unfair because not all wireless subscribers are aware of hacker prevention techniques. Moreover, this DEA can even bring down free Wi-Fi hotspots because the Wi-Fi owners have to be watchful of the content downloaded and uploaded via the Wi-Fi connection, which is simply impossible.
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