UK Backs Down on ‘Guilt Upon Accusation’ Laws
From The Times Online: “[last year] the Government had ’serious legislative intent’ to compel internet companies to cut off customers who ignore warnings not to pirate material. However, in an interview with The Times, David Lammy, the Intellectual Property Minister, said that the Government had ruled out legislating to force ISPs to disconnect such users.” …like many news stories it confuses accusations of copyright infringement with any illegal behaviour, but this is great news for UK citizens. Unfortunately New Zealand is still leading the world on Guilt Upon Accusation laws such as ‘Section 92′
January 27th, 2009 at 1:09 am
“The relative cost of stealing a bar of soap from an hotel might be small, but if it came to seven million people nicking the soap each year, which is what we have in the music industry, I’m sure that hotel chain would do something about it.”
YEWWWWW!!! who wants the soap from the previous hotel room user? yik.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I like this response on Arstechnica,
“That’s a laugh. A 2004 survey found that 61% of hotel guests stole toiletries (including soap): http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jul/04/travel/tr-insider4 . But then this quote: “Towels win as the most swiped items, said Tia Gordon, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Assn.” This seems to indicate that even though 3 times as much soap-stealing is going on as towel-stealing, hotels don’t even notice the loss of the soap.”