ISPs will soon be cutting the download limits of any user who copies music online without paying.
From today onwards the 6.5 million Britons that download music illegally each year will need to be on their best behaviour. As, in a step designed to stamp out internet piracy once and for all, ISPs will be keeping a much closer eye on their movements.
From here forward, individuals that continue to flout download rules and persistently copy music, movies or any other form of media over the internet without paying will be blacklisted and subject to strict traffic management controls; reducing the amount of information they can download significantly.
Announced today these measures are the first of their kind anywhere in the world and have been pegged as a more reasonable alternative to the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ approach the government had intended to put into play.
After talks with industry regulator Ofcom, the ‘big 6’ UK internet service providers have all agreed to do their bit and BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Tiscali customers will soon all have their online activity monitored for illegal downloads.
The first step in the introduction of this legislation will involve ISPs writing letters to homes where illegal download activity has been detected. This is in the hope that the ‘offender’ will learn their lesson and start paying. However, if after this they continue to download without paying, more stringent traffic filtering and traffic management techniques will then be put into play.
This legislation has largely been driven by campaigners from the music industry who have incurred heavy losses as an ever increasing number of individuals chose the alternative to paying. A further £1billion in potential revenue was predicted to be lost over the next 5 years had the government not stepped in.
While both the music and film industries are perceived to be wealthy ones, companies in this sector have started to make job cuts as a result of this lost revenue.
Commenting on the new legislation chief executive of British Music Rights, Fergal Sharkey said: "This is something of a step into the unknown for the internet providers, music industries and ministers. But we can’t go on without it – no business can survive after losing as much revenue as the music industry has."
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Comments (6)
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What_happened_to_the_UK?
25th Jul 2008 02:26
You people better take back your government quick. Vote for David Icke - yeah, he's a nut - but anything is better than tyranny
gene haynes
25th Jul 2008 06:39
There is a problem with illegal downloads.
The problem is that copyrighted material is protected too long.
As a compromise, copyrights should be in effect for two years.
After that the material becomes public property.
This will solve three problems:
1. Illegal downloading will seem more illegal to the general public.
2. Scare public resources won't be spent protecting the content and the internet won't become a lock-box of private ownership
3. The creaters of content will not be able to have 'guaranteed & protected' annunities that lasts their lifetime
I think this change would be fair since most of us are not guaranteed a lifetime of anything.
Additionally, this would open the market.
No one company or person could dominate since the market would have to bring new ideas from every possible source instead of retreading old talent.
darn liars
25th Jul 2008 07:29
"no business can survive after losing as much revenue as the music industry has."
lies, they have been making more money then ever
James Carter
26th Jul 2008 07:44
Amazing the amount of spying goes on through cameras, ISPs, the police in general. Scary.
Steve Smith
27th Jul 2008 19:27
Does anyone no of any ISP that does NOT restrict the amount you download or what you download?
I'm currently with Virgin and they are crap. Was Telewest before they were brought out, but there were no restrictions at all.
The only way I see out of this farse is to leave the UK.
I used to love this country...
Steve Samerson
29th Jul 2008 07:22
You have to take into consideration the fact that the people never stop creating new things to survive.
So, after such news many of hide IP software and VPN makers will start working more productive.
Then ISPs and government would remember how the life was easy before these restrictions. They were able to trace users, and with these new services they cannot do that anymore.
Therefore, what is good for government, is double-good for Internet users. :-)
I know that already many of p2p users use SmartHide to encode traffic and hide IP address from ISPs and moderators.
