Rights group tears into Ofcom

DIGITAL RIGHTS WATCHDOG the Open Rights Group (ORG) has panned Ofcom's proposed code to tackle 'piracy'.

The ORG has stepped up to highlight serious flaws in Ofcom's draft code. ORG reckons the draft fails to "outline the standards of evidence" to prosecute filesharers. As such, it doesn't comply with the Digital Economy Act (DEA), the law that Ofcom is set to regulate.

"The Act requires the evidential standards to be defined - but Ofcom are leaving this up the rights holders and ISPs to decide in the future," wrote Jim Killock of the ORG.

"We ask, how is anyone meant to trust this code if we can't see how the evidence is gathered or checked?"

ORG illustrates its case with a series of Ofcom's ill-conceived proposals. The "Initial Obligations Code" should manage the way copyright holders accuse users of copyright theft under DEA law.

However, Ofcom's current draft code would lead to accused individuals being dragged through the courts. The problem as ORG sees it is that Ofcom's draft has ISP's and copyright holders self-certifying their own evidence. That is ridiculous. At what point is an ISP going to decide the evidence it is collecting against filesharers is wrong?

The real clincher, as the ORG points out, is that there is no penalty for copyrights holders and ISPs if they get it wrong. That means they can cast their catch-all net far and wide with no repercussions for their actions.

The ORG illustrates case in point with UK superclub Ministry of Sound. We told you this week that the club dashed off thousands of letters demanding cash from users accused of illegally downloading music. Some of those users were wrongly accused because evidential standards weren't properly outlined, and even the BPI didn't condone the technique. If it attracted the ire of the BPI it must be doing something seriously wrong.

"We know things go wrong, and that's why the Act requires the evidential standards to be set out," Killock continued.

"What we need now is a new consultation on a new code that is compliant with the Act.

The deadline for Ofcom's consultation period on the draft code is 30 July. We can only hope that ORG's objections will be taken on board. µ