UK election: Conservative win means fight against piracy continues
The Conservative Party is expected to form the next UK government, which may mean it can carry out its pre-election pledge to tackle online piracy.
At the time of writing the Conservative Party had won 326 out of the 642 seats that have declared their result in the UK general election held yesterday (May 7).
Eight more seats have yet to be confirmed.
In its pre-election manifesto, published on April 14, the party said: “We will protect intellectual property by continuing to require internet service providers (ISPs) to block sites that carry large amounts of illegal content, including their proxies.”
A proxy is a portal that allows users to access a copyright infringing site via a different domain name.
The manifesto added: “We will build on progress made under our voluntary anti-piracy projects to warn internet users when they are breaching copyright. We will work to ensure that search engines do not link to the worst-offending sites.”
Between 2010 and 2015, the party worked in coalition with the Liberal Democrats to introduce a number of policies intended to assist right owners.
The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, a specialised unit at the City of London Police, was set up in 2013 to help tackle IP crime including counterfeiting and online piracy.
In October 2014, the Conservatives announced the unit, initially due to close this year, would remain open until 2017.
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats also introduced the Creative Content UK scheme in July last year, which enables ISPs to send letters to users who access copyright protected content without right owners' permission and direct them towards legal alternatives.
In other election news, the Green Party of England and Wales held onto its one seat.
The party faced criticism after it committed to reducing the length of copyright protection to ‘life plus 14 years’ should it be elected. It has since said it will review the policy.
The Labour Party has won 230 seats so far, which is down on the 256 seats it won in the 2010 general election.
Labour was vague on its specific plans regarding IP but did state that it was “crucial for the economy”.
A party spokesperson told WIPR last week that it has “challenged the government to set out a long-term vision”.
