UK Government Decriminalizes Piracy. VCAP to hit 2015

After many years of seemingly no progress, the UK Government has decided to scrap extensive punishment plans aimed at digital piracy. Instead, the VCAP (Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme) will be installed as of 2015. In a nutshell, this means that active illegal downloaders will receive up to 4 emails or letters a year, intended to inform the person of their illegal actions and the harm it causes to UK creative industries. The UK’s biggest internet providers – BT, Talktalk, Virgin and Sky have all signed on to the scheme with more obscure providers expected to follow.

The biggest detail here is that there is absolutely no further action to be taken, even on repeated offense. Several statements have been made about the scheme, mostly claiming that the UK creative industries are suffering, but they are basically impossible to protect from piracy, but this is the most valid option they had.

Geoff Taylor, chief exec of the BPI claims that it’s about “persuading the persuadable, such as parents who do not know what is going on with their net connection.” Adding that “VCAP is not about denying access to the internet. It’s about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice.” Hence, the scheme is intended to educate, or perhaps threaten users into not engaging in piracy.

There are no current details as to how frequent or severe the offense has to be in order to be eligible for these emails, but it’s a safe suggestion that constant offenders will be the initial targets. The scheme seems like a decent attempt compared to previous plans to attack torrent websites. But it’s simply naive to think that this will have a long term impact on the state of UK-based digital piracy.