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Guilty until proven innocent: Families will have to pay £20 to show they DIDN'T illegally download music under new law

Regime designed to stamp out internet piracy will treat individuals as ‘guilty until proven innocent’

People wrongly accused of making illegal downloads will have to pay £20 fee to appeal and prove their innocence.

Seems like they are going to go through with this since all the major isp's in the UK have blocked the Pirate bay.


Full link to the story here
Link

The one thing that would never happen in the United States happens in the UK (guaranteed to be ruled unconstitutional if they tried that in the US).

[Edited by Neo7, 6/26/2012 4:38:17 PM]

The daily Mail is really isn't a reliable source if to be fair.

So basically you have to pay not to be guilty? Isn't that how bribery works?

I'd say it is, yeah.

That's simply an appeal so you are allowed to 'demonstrate' your innocence. So it may even be for nothing.

"I will pay you so I am allowed to prove my innocence."

That makes perfect sense!

Yap, this is capitalism at work, we take money from the poor and give it to the rich, this law will be really stupid

About time they blocked major torrent sites to be honest.

The £20 isn't a fine as some people are crying about, if you are accused and you receive a warning via your ISP about warez downloads etc, you have to pay £20 to contest it.

Remember also this plan is not in effect yet and may be changed at any time, whether or not you get the money back is irrelevant to the fact I think its wrong to force people to pay admin costs to appeal.

I hate Piracy!! at the end of the day i really cannot stand the way this country has the BIG BROTHER approach on all kinds of things,when it comes to downloading a film or Music you have not paid for its against the Law, the Law has to be upheld.

Now when BIG BROTHER does its thing on Terrorism thats great by me and also for our personal security, but our city's now have camera's everywhere and these security men operatiing them for our councils use these camera's for spying on things thats also illegal and an invasion of privacy.

I also beleive that the £20:00 fee is wrong regardless of why,if you are found guilty thats when and only then you pay your fine,the easy answer is Do not steal what you have not paid for,in the past i have used an MP3 Peer to peer sharing thats really hard today for some reason to get these free music downloads, unless you use Torrents which i do not pirate anyway.

In the Long run its this BIG BROTHER that really concerns me and our Liberties taken away,our Police think they are above the Law in the way they act and behave at times,and i cannot TOLERATE INJUSTICE.

All said have a nice week-end everybody,sorry for getting carried away on this Topic.