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British ISPs Agree To Curb File Sharers' Internet Access
Six British ISPs have agreed to a voluntary code proposed by the British government to curb subscribers' ability to use the internet if they're suspected of sharing copyrighted material without permission.
The government's Memorandum of Understanding between Britain's largest ISPs (Virgin Media, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange and Tiscali) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), involves sending letters to subscribers suspected of infringing behavior, according to BBC. The memorandum appears to involve throttling the access speeds of suspected infringers, not booting them entirely. At this point, the letters will merely identify accounts as having been suspected of infringement.
Conventional wisdom holds that the ISPs only signed this agreement to prevent the British government making legislation to boot file sharers from their ISPs. However, not every ISP will likely cave to the pressure.
If reports are correct and Carphone Warehouse has agreed to the Memorandum, it will come as something of a surprise. The company's CEO has opposed the French "three strikes you're offline" proposal for months, declaring in April, "The music industry has consistently failed to adapt to changes in technology and now seeks to foist their problems on someone else. I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would voluntarily disconnect a customer's account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrongdoing."
The decision, made by the Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform's (BERR) on Thursday, will likely cause a full-scale public relations battle to ensue as ISPs scramble to convince customers not to flee to competitors that offer more privacy.
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They should get on with it. This should be the final straw after all the spying, redefinition of "unlimited" and other shenanigans that promotes an open-source internet by the people, for the people.
So I guess the ISPs in Britain will be going out of business within 6 months. NOt sure how many people will be left with access by that time
I do wonder what ISPs are introducing this policy. I'll be annoyed if it's the one i'm on and so will my dad, to be honest.
I mean, how will it worked for networks in places such as uni? Three students do the copyright thing and the whole uni loses it's wireless abilities?
And totally agreed that ISPs would lose far too many customers through this method for them to feasibly do it. I think the government underestimates how many people are casual downloaders.
BT, Virgin, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Tiscali and BSkyB are the ISPs concerned.
motherfrakkers
We, users, should use the same three strike model to kick some buts, like politician's, industrie's, and of course, ISP's
Well in the UK, the BPI (aka the major music industry), the government and ISPs have ironed out an agreement based on three strikes of file sharing and you are disconnected.
I have written an article on my blog which examines whether this bandaid is actually hitting the root cause of a lot of piracy.
The blog also has a video interview with Pim Betist the founder of www.sellaband.com
Be good to get your thoughts…
http://www.themusicvoid.com/?p=110
Cheers,
Jakomi
ZOMG if its on teh internets its freez!!! FREE PRON FTW!!!
It's about time. When are the thieving U.S. based ISPs going to stand up and admit they are at the root of the piracy problem and do the same here? I've had about all the ignorant squawking from the freetard crowd i can stand to hear. Judging from most of the comments on this story this column's readers are comprised mostly of freeloading scum.
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I would like to introduce these shitty British ISP's to /my/ new policy: one dumb policy like this, and I get a new ISP.
Ta-daa!