Britain Decriminalizes Video Game Piracy

if you say so.

No, it's basically the same as the six strikes system here. This sets up a system to inform alleged pirates of the activity on their connection and that it's illegal. This voluntary system will send as many as four notices. At that time the accused pirate is out of this system's boundaries.

Because British ISPs are willing to set this up, you'll see most major rights holders attempt to use it first to dissuade piracy, because most don't want the press or the expense of going after small time pirates they might be able to scare. But the whole system is voluntary, in no way changes or replaces the law, and rights holders are not required to use it at all. If they wish they can threaten or prosecute you right from the get go, just as before. And of course those pirates who have ignored the four warnings they received are open to prosecution as well.

The notification system protects a pirate from nothing.

You can never trust the movie/music industry when it comes to stuff like this, they're up to something!

Can I marry my way in?

the real harm piracy does in far less than its said in the media

people that can pay usually decides to pay a decent price, those that cant pay would not buy it anyway so the publishers lose nothing

the only real danger is when people that can pay decide not to pay just because its too easy to pirate and they have no morals

http://torrentfreak.com/the-uk-did-not-just-decriminalize-file-sharing-140723/

That was the message doing the rounds yesterday in the media, starting on VG247and going on to overload Reddit and dozens of other sites. Even Russia’s RT.com got in on the fun.

Except it’s not fun at all. It’s completely untrue on countless levels and to suggest otherwise puts people at risk. Let’s be absolutely clear here. Copyright infringement, whether that’s on file-sharing networks or elsewhere, is ILLEGAL in the UK. Nothing, repeat NOTHING, has changed.

As detailed in our previous article, VCAP is a voluntary (that’s the ‘V’ part) agreement between some rightsholders and a few ISPs to send some informational letters to people observed infringing copyright.

This means that the mainstream music labels and the major Hollywood studios will soon have an extra option to reach out to UK Internet users. However, whenever they want to – today, tomorrow or next year – any of the copyright holders involved in VCAP can still file a lawsuit or seek police action against ANYONE engaged in illegal file-sharing – FACT.

What makes the original VG247 report even more inaccurate is its headline: “Britain just decriminalised online game piracy.” If we’re still laboring under the illusion that VCAP is somehow the reason behind the government’s “decriminalization” of piracy, understand this – video game companies are not even part of the VCAP program.

Worst still, the biggest financial punishment ever ordered by a UK court was a default judgment in 2008 issued to – wait for it – a person who illegally file-shared a single video game. The case was a farce, but the judgment stands and the law on which it was based has not changed. There is nothing stopping any video game company from doing this again once VCAP starts, properly this time.

But why stop at video games? Porn companies/trolls aren’t involved in the VCAP scheme either and any of those could head off to court to obtain the identities of people they want to sue. It’s happening in the UK. There’s a VCAP-style scheme in the United States too, often referred to as “six strikes”, and that has done nothing to stop companies like Malibu Media filing lawsuits almost every day.

Voluntary agreements avoid the complication of changing the law, that’s their entire point. They offer helpful mechanisms that the law does not already provide. For example, UK ISPs are not expressly required to forward infringement notices to users under current law, yet VCAP means that some rightsholders, not all, will get that ‘right’.

Maybe they should hand out those same letters to people who buy used games as they leave a store.