

Online piracy will no longer be a criminal offence in the UK - mm_mm
http://www.themetropolist.com/play/latest-play/online-piracy-longer-criminal-offence-uk/

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pudquick
Wrong.

[http://bgr.com/2014/07/23/vcap-and-illegal-downloads-laws-
in...](http://bgr.com/2014/07/23/vcap-and-illegal-downloads-laws-in-u-k/)

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runeks
Was it ever a criminal offense? I mean downloading, as a user?

I don't recall any government arrests of simple downloaders.

~~~
M2Ys4U
The short answer is "no".

The longer answer is "well, kinda, but not really". There _have_ been a couple
of convictions, but these were guilty pleas - people who have either been
advised incorrectly by their solicitors (most probably because they were not
experts in copyright law) or just really did not want to go through a trial.

The copyright industry has tried to completely side-step copyright law
entirely and use the offence of "conspiracy to defraud" with _very_ dubious
legal basis.

It's been far from common, though. There have only been a handful of attempted
prosecutions, and usually only because the copyright industry (via FACT[0])
has leant on the police.

Most recently they've c̶o̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ err, co-opted the City of London
Police. This is the force that polices the square-mile City of London in the
heart of London (See CGP Grey's excellent video[1] for more about the City of
London vs the city called London).

[0] The 'Federation Against Copyright Theft' \- an absurd name for an absurd
organisation - [http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/](http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc)

