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UK ISPs Near Agreement On Illegal File Sharing

Posted by kdawson on from the and-you-won't-like-it dept.

ISPreview UK writes "UK Music's chief executive, Feargal Sharkey, claims that progress has been made on a deal between the music industry and broadband ISPs to tackle illegal file sharing. The comments came during yesterday's annual Internet Service Providers' Association conference in Eversheds, with an ISPA spokesman confirming that 'some kind of agreement between rightholders and ISPs can be reached,' adding, 'everyone wants to work together to make legal online models work.' The news follows July's crucial Memorandum of Understanding agreement between copyright holders and six of the UK's largest ISPs, which account for roughly 90% of the country's broadband market. The initial agreement approved a principal of sending warning letters to customers who have been accused of downloading illegal music or movies."

7 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Illegal by Threni · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Are they going to be spending much of my - as a customer - money on lawyers, differentiating between illegal downloads of current releases, and, say, rips of long out of print vinyl such as the Avant Garde Project (www.avantgardeproject.org) ? I rather imagine they'll just be trying to stop anyone who is bypassing the cosy tv/mp3/movie deals they've done with studios, broadcasters and publishers.

    Some sort of blanket encryption on *everything* sent from/received by people's PCs is sorely needed. Perhaps if every PC were running TOR (or something functionally very similar) there would be less of a problem here.

    1. Re:Illegal by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is a facet of copyright they need to fix. If you publish something, then take it out of print, you lose your copyright. Charging usurious fees for a print should also be considered "out of print" (like more than 30% of the initial run's street price, not MSRP:)

      And yes, this would directly remove most Disney works from copyrighted status, as this is their ploy to create artificial scarcity and increase demand for their products.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  2. What *is* the *Actual* Process? by mrpacmanjel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So how is this actually enforced?

    As I currently understand it:

    1) "Lawyer" firms trawl P2P traffic and compile list of "illegal" file sharers and thier details (e.g.IP addresses, time/dates, torrent files)

    2) Contact ISP, handover "evidence" of illegal activity, ISP monitors user's activity and examines previous usage logs.

    3) If activity is "confirmed" then "warning" letter is issued to user.

    4) ISP continues to monitor user's activity and "liase" with "lawyer" firm.

    5) If user's activity ~= "illegal" then possibly issue further letters and/or throttle user's bandwidth.

    I'm tempted to type "6)....Profit!" :)

    What if the user contests the evidence?
    What if a mistake was made identifying the user?
    Will it entail an expensive legal battle to prove innocence (I thought *guilt* had to be proven)?

    This raises many questions and I doubt this is a workable solution.

    If it is only P2P traffic that is monitored then I will not be to concerned at the moment. There are many other ways illegal content can be obtained and quite frankly let them monitor P2P.
    It will make "lawyers" feel they are doing their job, Copyright owners will feel "justice" is served, ISPs keep our Orwellian Govt of their backs and smart users will find alternatives.

    Business as usual.

    I'm more worried that the Govt want a central database of email and internet usage rather something short-sighted like this.

    As usual the Govt and content holders are one step behind the internet generation and will continue to stumble through all this "new-fangled" technology.

  3. Libel or defamation? by anexium · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're sent one of these letters that alleges that you've been 'pirating' film/music/whatever but you haven't been trading/downloading in anything copyrighted - and therefore innocent against these allegations - is there not a case for bringing some kind of libel or defamation action against your ISP, the lawyers and the BPI?

  4. Re:6 ISPs Involved by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The large ISPs in the UK do tend to suck. It seems the bigger they get the less they care about individual customers.

  5. spying is against human rights? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I always thought that spying on/viewing of personal data is protected by the European Convention on Human Rights? Surely even ISP's can't just view packets for the sake of it?

    If you do receive one of the letters haven't you got a case to take the ISP's to court for snooping.

  6. Re:6 ISPs Involved by sjwest · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Somehow when this starts working i can see a sudden enhanced retarded-ness that only a big isp can engage once they realise that there losing clients by the boat load.

    I was thinking about a mobile internet 3g thing from orange but it seems that choice is made and i now cannot buy from them now. Not to worry though Im sure they wont mind.