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Government publishes responses received on P2P file-sharing consultation

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENTERPRISE AND REGULATORY REFORM News Release (2008/13) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 15 January 2008

Last summer the Department for Business launched a consultation on unlawful Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing and its impact on the British arts and entertainment industries. The consultation called for evidence on the issues involved and invited views from rights holders, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), consumer organisations and the wider public on a range of options to tackle the problem.

A summary of the responses published today, highlights that there was no across-the-board support for the Government's preferred co-regulatory proposal, which would give legal footing to an industry code of conduct agreed by the rights holders and ISPs.

Minister for Technology, Communications and Broadband, Stephen Carter said:

"I'm grateful for all the responses we received, which point to a consensus on the need to educate consumers about the economic importance of copyright material and the damaging effect file-sharing has on Britain's creative industries. We've also seen agreement on the need for legal content to be innovative, attractive and easily-accessible. And it's clear that consumers' concerns about data protection and privacy must be addressed.

He continued:

"However, we received some opposing views on other issues - including regulation - reflecting the fact that this is a complex and challenging problem. We're now examining what the best way forward is and will set out the next steps in the interim Digital Britain report later this month."

Notes to Editors

1. The summary and list of responses is available at http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/sectors/digitalcon/p2presponses/page49707.html

2. The P2P consultation was a recommendation of the 2006 Gowers Review of Intellectual Property. The consultation opened on 24 July 2008 and closed on 30 October.

3. Some respondents requested confidentiality for commercial reasons; therefore the summary and comments published today refer to the non-confidential responses only.

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