London Swallowed a City but Couldn't Digest It.

The short answer is "no". The longer answer is "well, kinda, but not really". There have been a couple of convictions, but these were guilty pleas - people who have either been advised incorrectly by their solicitors (most probably because they were not experts in copyright law) or just really did not want to go through a trial. The copyright industry has tried to completely side-step copyright law entirely and use the offence of "conspiracy to defraud" with very dubious legal basis. It's been far from common, though. There have only been a handful of attempted prosecutions, and usually only because the copyright industry (via FACT[0]) has leant on the police. Most recently they've c̶o̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ err, co-opted the City of London Police. This is the force that polices the square-mile City of London in the heart of London (See CGP Grey's excellent video[1] for more about the City of London vs the city called London). [0] The 'Federation Against Copyright Theft' - an absurd name for an absurd organisation - [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]

CGP Grey's "The (Secret) City of London" are great videos on the topic of the City of London (vs. London) Part 1: [VIDEO] Part 2: [LINK]

CGP Grey has a delightful video explaining this: "The Secret City inside of London Revealed" (2012) [VIDEO] Highly recommended.

As an aside, the article points out how the City of London is a separate entity from greater London, but doesn't go into a lot of detail about it. This video does an effective job in explaining how things work: [VIDEO]

I find your comment somewhat alarmist, and lacking historical context. The City of London (from which the Temple end of the Garden Bridge starts) is many many hundreds of years older than the UK itself, and has always been privately owned and governed by shadowy, corporate and arcane processes. Traditionally even the Queen is not allowed to enter the City of London without the say-so of the Lord Mayor. This "private place operating as a public space" has been operating for centuries and stewarded the emergence of London as a leading global financial centre and until recently capital of the largest Empire the world has ever seen. I admit it's reasonable to debate the pros and cons of private ownership of public spaces in city centres, but my point is that in this case The City of London is both historically unique and important, and by many measures been a huge success for the host nation. Informative/fun video on the subject: [VIDEO]

CGP Grey does a really good job giving an overview of the history of The City of London. [VIDEO] Along with another video about the governing structure of The City of London. [LINK]

If anyone cares to know more about the City of London, CGP Grey did a nice two-parter video describing its history, its privileges and how to become mayor if you care to. The (Secret) City of London, Part 1: History [VIDEO] The (Secret) City of London, Part 2: Government [LINK]

There are a lot. I thought this one was really funny [0]. This one I found very interesting [1]. Somewhat different, is the Hello Internet [2] podcast, which is by Grey and Brady Haran who you might know from the Numberphile youtube channel [3]. It's basically the 2 of them chatting about random stuff, but I find it very entertaining. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]