3 Count: Across the Pond

This is daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday.

1: Fines for IP infringement will increase tenfold

First off today, if you’re in the UK and are running some kind of piracy ring, be warned that the fines for copyright infringement are likely to go up to £50,000. Currently, the fines in the country are capped between £5,000 and £10,000, depending on where you are.

This, in some cases, ten fold increase has caught the attention of many who worry that the fines may be used indiscriminately. Meanwhile, those in copyright industries are applauding the higher fine, even though they had originally hoped for jail sentences for online infringements as well.

All of this was part of a consultation between the Intellectual Property Office and the public. The IPO is now drafting legislation to be voted on that most people feel has a solid chance of passing.

2: European Parliament smacks down France on three strikes law

Next up today, the rest of the EU sent France a pretty harsh message in Parliament, voting down a “graduated response” bill 407-57. The bill would have allowed ISPs to disconnect file sharers on accusations of copyright infringement The bill supported by the Parliment instead requires that a judge be involved in any disconnection process.

France has been a very strong proponent of the legislation, also sometimes known as “Three strikes”, and had been lobbying hard for the passage of the judgeless-version of the legislation.

The bills are now headed for yet another round of negotiation proving once again that bureaucracy is alive and well in the EU.

3: Is the IFPI Obstructing Free Trade to Pressure Canada into Copyright Reform?

Finally today, Canada and the EU are hammering out a free trade agreement but the IFPI has come out saying that it doesn’t feel that the agreement should go through until it passes tough new copyright laws that it feels are necessary to protect copyrighted works.

This has led many to accuse the IFPI of interfering with free trade and, perhaps even worse, academic dishonesty since much of their accusation is based on an U.S. report that is widely held to be very flawed.

It is unclear what, if any, effect this will have on the negotiations but rest assured this will not be the last we will hear of this.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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