Seems like the United Kingdom are coming hard on pirates. This as the new proposed piracy law would increase the penalty to violators from two to 10 years in prison.
"We are now proposing changes that include increasing the maximum sentence, but at the same time addressing concerns about the scope of the offence", a government spokesperson stated.
However, you're unlikely to spend about a decade in jail if you're streaming a movie. This however is in stringent implementation for people who are running major piracy sites and are directly financially profiting from infringed copyrighted contents.
"The Government believes that online offences should be treated no less seriously than their physical counterparts," the official response to the consultation says, noting further that, "Harmonising these will provide a deterrent effect to criminals and, where criminality continues, provide for tangible punitive action."
The Digital Economy bill, now on its second reading in Parliament and inching ever closer to becoming law, seeks to jail online pirates with sentences that would normally be reserved for hardened criminals.Pirates selling physical versions of copyrighted material (CDs and DVDs) can already be jailed up to 10 years under current legislation.The newest draft of the Digital Economy Bill was published in July, and if successful, would amend sections of the current bit of legislation - the Copyright, Designs and Patents act of 1988 - to better account for the prevalence of online piracy.
"We will help businesses from attacks on their intellectual property. Burglars can be sentenced to ten years in prison, but the criminal gangs that are making vast sums of money through exploiting the online creations of others only face a two-year sentence. We will increase this to ten", the official statement noted.
While this is certainly the best move any government would move forward and impose such a low, it's also likely that there has to be maximum imposition of stringent security checks inside the interwebs if the same has to commence in full force. Only such a move will prevent true piracy and also will result in more pirates getting caught without knowledge.
