HRH Queen Elizabeth II
In quite a bad mood, it seems...

In her speech today, she announced her (Labour) Government’s plans to enact a bill including measures against individuals who commit filesharing offences:

“My government will introduce a bill to ensure communications infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting,”

Last month, Peter Mandelson set out the government’s plans for a scheme which would see persistent online sharers of copyrighted material sent a series of warning letters before having their broadband connections slowed down or even suspended. Warning letters will be sent to offenders, followed by bandwidth restrictions and stoppages. This will obviously require some rather Orwellian monitoring of people’s internet use, and may even lead to widespread criminal prosecutions.