According to Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the new anti-piracy laws will no doubt appear if the ISPs won’t come to terms with the music industry:
"If we can’t get voluntary arrangements we will legislate," he stated
The politician told the BBC that the two parties were already engaged in negotiations to find a solution:
"For the most part I think there are going to be successful voluntary schemes between the creative industries and ISPs. Our preferred position is that we shouldn’t have to regulate."
Apparently, what the government aims to do is establish a data base featuring copyrighted music and then match the content exchanged on the net with the already stored data. The official stressed out that such laws would be used to track down those who make a profit out of such activities and not to harass "14-year-olds who shared music".
Whatever the aims, the new laws are everything but “politically correct”. It’s hard to imagine that the technology would be able to accurately identify copyrighted content (there are various ways to fool a software, no need for further comment here). On the other hand, authorities would get the right to keep an eye on what users actually do online. Looks like the British government is eager to meet some privacy groups.