The UK government has put plans in place to try to stop online piracy by increasing the time any person could spend in prison, with the minimum sentence potentially rising to up to 10 years.
BBC News reporst this morning that the plans would see the jail term rise to 10 years from the current sentence, which stands at 2 years, and is being designed to try to deter and stop those who are distributing copies of different media, including films, rather than targeting those who download the files.
“Online or offline, intellectual property theft is a crime,” said Peter Ratcliffe, detective chief inspector and head of the police intellectual property crime unit. “With advances in technology and the popularity of the internet, more and more criminals are turning to online criminality and so it is imperative that our prosecution system reflects our moves to a more digital world.”
Such measures are said to have the backing of many film and music companies, who believe the current two year sentence does not deter people in the appropriate way. In addition to this news, the BBC is also reporting that ripping DVDs and CDs for personal uses has been made illegal once again.
https://youtu.be/IWWtOQOZSTI?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 20, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
