After a report on Tuesday detailing a new legal initiative on online piracy in the U.K. claimed that the local government has decriminalized illegal downloads, TorrentFreak has set the record straight on the matter, saying that torrenting movies, music, games and any other kind of online content will be just as illegal in the future as it is now.
The new VCAP initiative will not change existing U.K.’s copyright infringement laws, and copyright holders will still be able to enforce their rights, and go after anyone caught downloading stuff online without paying for it.
Under the VCAP program, U.K. ISPs will inform users about their illegal download habits, and offer information about the sites where they can purchase their desired content and avoid piracy. But, as TorrentFreak puts it, “any of the copyright holders involved in VCAP can still file a lawsuit or seek police action against anyone engaged in illegal file-sharing.”
“Try this. Head off to your local Odeon, Showcase or UCI this coming weekend, set up a camcorder, and see if you can get a really sweet copy of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” TorrentFreak writes. “Begin uploading this to The Pirate Bay and while it’s seeding send an email to the Federation Against Copyright Theft containing your personal details.”
“VCAP friendly letter incoming or a police raid? Yeah, thought so.”
