The Government Wants to Send Online Pirates to Jail for 10 Years

According to the latest figures from the communications watchdog Ofcom, published in September 2013, pirated content accounts for over a fifth of all content consumed online in the UK.

Tougher sentences would act as a “significant deterrent” said the government.

Big changes are coming to United Kingdom with new laws on online piracy.

The move would mean that people accused of uploading copyrighted films, TV shows and music online for people to download would face far longer in jail than they now do.

The government is likely to outline its plans once the consultation is complete. Internet rights groups will question the influence Hollywood and the music industry has over the day-to-day operations of the police – after all, industry bodies, funded by top studios and record labels, have paid for staff to work in police stations with the sole brief of investigating copyright crime.

Netflix, Spotify and others are evidence this is happening, the industry groups say. However, the argument by them is that no legal service regardless of how cheap it is will ever entice those who just do not want to pay for their entertainment.

UK’s creative industries, including film, television and music, are worth £7.1 billion per year to the United Kingdom economy and support more than 1.6 million jobs.

“By toughening penalties for commercial-scale online offending we are offering greater protections to businesses and sending a clear message to deter criminals”, says Intellectual Property Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe.

Mike Weatherley, intellectual property advisor to the Prime Minister said that “there is now a disparity in sentencing between online and offline crime that needs to be harmonised”.