Piracy Police Chief Calls For State Interference to Stop Internet Anarchy

[shamu726]

Since last year City of London Police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit have been working with copyright holders to tackle online piracy. The police have already booked some successes but according to PIPCU head Andy Fyfe, more state interference may be needed to stop Internet anarchy.

Founded little over a year ago, the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has quickly grown to become one of the world’s most active anti-piracy operations.

The unit uses a wide range of strategies, from writing to domain registrars and threatening them, to working with advertisers in order to cut off revenues from ‘pirate’ sites.

PIPCU is determined to continue its anti-piracy efforts in the years to come. However, the unit’s head Andy Fyfe also believes that the Government may have to tighten the rules on the Internet, to stop people from breaking the law.

In an interview with PC Pro, Fyfe says he wants to see this topic being debated in the media.

“I’m very interested in having a debate in the media about how much policing of the internet people want. At the moment, there’s almost no regulation and no policing of the internet,” Fyfe says.

PIPCU’s chief believes that the public has to be protected from criminals including pirate site operators who take advantage of their trust. If that doesn’t happen then the Internet may descend into anarchy, he says, suggesting that the Government may have to intervene to prevent this.

“In the end, that might mean that the Internet becomes completely ungovernable, and that no one can dare operate on it at all, no one can dare do their shopping or banking on it. So should there be a certain level of … state inference in the interest of protecting consumers? I’m very keen to raise that as a debate,” Fyfe notes.

The Police chief believes that tighter rules may be needed to prevent people from breaking the law in the future. This could mean that not everyone is allowed to launch a website, but that a license would be required, for example.

“There may well come a time when government decides it’s had enough and it’s not getting enough help from those main companies that control the way we use the internet – they’re not getting enough help from them, so they’re going to start imposing regulations, imposing a code of conduct about the way people may be allowed to operated on the internet,” Fife says.

PIPCU’s head doesn’t detail what the “code of conduct” might look like or how it may be enforced. Perhaps it’s finally time for the Internet passport to be introduced?

We’re keen on having this debate as well, so please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Source: TorrentFreak

[VileTouch]

well well... so they finally drop the masquerade and openly say that they want total control of the internet...how cute

[dbaker]

I was born and live in the once "Great" Britain and to be honest i believe the country is going downhill FAST, I live in a a good sized town but we never see any police,day or night, Ive had cars stolen or broken into and it takes days for the police to come round or in some cases they dont bother! We hear in the news almost daily about budget cuts, police cuts and lack of manpower, but the police seem to have all the money and manpower to chase the odd "pirate" and send threatning letters etc, goes to show what they think is the most important and essential way to spend money and use manpower!

Recently the UK has seen an increase in "pedo's" and "grooming" gangs....how many arrests....F**K all but how many arrests over a bit of file sharing....LOTS.

Every week more and more sites are added to the ISP block lists, even proxy sites, Please my fellow country men and woman...WAKE UP before we sleepwalk into something we dont like, taking away freedom has to start somewhere and in the UK its starting with the web, smoking, drinking, how we can bring our children up and now they want a FAT tax, in my town a mum has had her young son taken away from her because he was a bit fat, the police turned up mob handed to do this but they cant takle real crime!!

The web is freedom, it should be "lawless" for the most part, to have access to information on anything, good or bad is freedom! I will take my chances living in a world with a "lawless" internet, i will even take my chances living in a world with terrorism and crime as long as im free, we would all be safer locked away in a cell behind big walls but who wants to live like that???? 1984, V for Vendetta.....a vision of "Great" Britain to come ....who knows.....................rant DONE!!!! :angry:

[locoJoe]

PIPCU’s chief believes that the public has to be protected from criminals including pirate site operators who take advantage of their trust. If that doesn’t happen then the Internet may descend into anarchy, he says, suggesting that the Government may have to intervene to prevent this.

The problem is that there are plenty of ignorant, blind melon, lemming, pita's out there to support the governments management of anything and everything.

[The Owl]

your looking at it wrong.

The Police have said in a round about way "We Can't control it you try" to the Government they cannot either. status quo resumed move on

I have been out here doing what I do for longer than some here have been alive (jeeeeez makes me sound like Noah) but its true it is only idiots and blatantly stupid greedy people that get pulled and IMHO serve them right.

[CODYQX4]

I was born and live in the once "Great" Britain and to be honest i believe the country is going downhill FAST, I live in a a good sized town but we never see any police,day or night, Ive had cars stolen or broken into and it takes days for the police to come round or in some cases they dont bother! We hear in the news almost daily about budget cuts, police cuts and lack of manpower, but the police seem to have all the money and manpower to chase the odd "pirate" and send threatning letters etc, goes to show what they think is the most important and essential way to spend money and use manpower!

Recently the UK has seen an increase in "pedo's" and "grooming" gangs....how many arrests....F**K all but how many arrests over a bit of file sharing....LOTS.

Every week more and more sites are added to the ISP block lists, even proxy sites, Please my fellow country men and woman...WAKE UP before we sleepwalk into something we dont like, taking away freedom has to start somewhere and in the UK its starting with the web, smoking, drinking, how we can bring our children up and now they want a FAT tax, in my town a mum has had her young son taken away from her because he was a bit fat, the police turned up mob handed to do this but they cant takle real crime!!

The web is freedom, it should be "lawless" for the most part, to have access to information on anything, good or bad is freedom! I will take my chances living in a world with a "lawless" internet, i will even take my chances living in a world with terrorism and crime as long as im free, we would all be safer locked away in a cell behind big walls but who wants to live like that???? 1984, V for Vendetta.....a vision of "Great" Britain to come ....who knows.....................rant DONE!!!! :angry:

What you describe is happening in many countries, as everything is being fucked beyond salvation, just as planned. Soon enough everything will fall apart and they'll get tired of faking it and bring out their guns and it will be everlasting Martial Law.

Look at how events like Ferguson and the Boston bombings in USA played out. Slap some military gear on the cops and call it a war zone.