Last week, the consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus, wrote to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the six major film studios, about the way the Association collects evidence of copyright infringement by individuals on P2P networks.
In its letter the watchdog said that it would seek “full transparency in relation to how evidence is gathered” so that internet subscribers would be able to challenge allegations that they have infringed rights-holders’ copyrights under planned new anti-piracy procedures being developed by Ofcom.
The letter relates to a presentation the MPAA gave to Consumer Focus about the process they will be using for the American ‘six strike’ copyright infringement process.
The consumer champion found a number of issues that could lead to errors in the gathering of evidence of infringement, which is important, as the MPAA intend to use this procedure for the Digital Economy Act (DEA) process in the UK.
Consumer Focus is happy for a few details of a monitoring systems right-holders to be kept confidential but it says that it would not be justified for rights-holders not to publish the remaining details about its evidence gathering processes and that those accused of infringement should have access to the same evidence copyright holders have.
Under Ofcom’s revised proposals ISPs would issue “standard form” notifications to customers on the basis of evidence of alleged online copyright infringement gathered by rights-holder groups and compiled in a ‘copyright infringement report’ (CIR). The evidence-gathering procedures must be approved by Ofcom.
To challenge an accusation of infringement, subscribers will have to pay £20 to appeal. If a subscriber receives three letters, they will be added to a list of repeat infringers, copyright owners can then request the details of those subscribers, at which point they could take them to court.
For more information about intellectual property law, speak to our solicitor Chloe Bunn.