Game piracy in the UK is no longer a “crime”

Britain’s largest Internet service providers, content producers, and the country’s government will no longer punish people who pirate games online.

Instead, they will send the perpetrator a letter “trying to educate” him or her about the legal alternatives to piracy.

One of the companies participating in the campaign – named the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP) – is Virgin Media, who had the following to say: “We believe people will ultimately pay if they can get what they want, how they want, at a price that’s fair to them.”

“VCAP is not about denying access to the internet. It’s about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice,” the body said.

If an Internet user is found to have illegally downloaded content, their ISP will send them the aforementioned letter. A maximum of four letters can be sent to one user per year.

And that’s it. No further punishment – even if you ignore the letters.

The campaign is set to get under way in 2015, and marks a big shift in how concerned parties are tackling piracy. Other stakeholders taking part in the campaign are BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, The Motion Picture Association (MPA), and the British Record Music Industry.

Figures recently published by Ofcom show that nearly a quarter of all UK downlaods were of pirated content.

Do you think this is they way SA should address piracy? Let us know in the comments and forum.