Government “Holds a Gun to the Head” of ISPs Over P2P
Written by enigmax on June 23, 2008The British government appears to be running out of patience with ISPs as they struggle to come to an agreement with the music industry on P2P music piracy. One ‘top-level’ ISP executive says “The British government just put a gun to our head.” Major ISPs are now in “serious” talks with the music industry.
Recently we reported on the agreement between UK ISP Virgin Media and the British Phonographic Industry to start sending out warnings to Virgin’s subscribers who the BPI accuse of uploading copyright music. Now, according to a Digital Music News report, the British government has started urgently applying pressure to prominent ISPs to find a solution to the ‘problem’ of file-sharing. The pressure includes a threat to bring in new laws, should ISPs and the music industry not come to a solution of their own.
The government previously set a deadline of April 2009 for the parties to reach an agreement but according to sources, pressure is intensifying to deal with the issue sooner. A “top-level executive” gave an indication of the level of pressure stating: “The British government just put a gun to our head.”
According to what DMN describe as “top-level” and other “executive” sources, the music industry and major ISPs including BT, Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali and Virgin Media are now involved in “serious negotiations” over how to deal with what they perceive to be a serious threat to their business model.
Andy Burnham, Culture Secretary and Labour Member of Parliament is said to be playing a prominent role after tough comments earlier in the year: “Let me make it absolutely clear: this is a change of tone from the government,” Burnham told the FT. “It’s definitely serious legislative intent.”
At the London Calling event last week - billed as ‘the UK’s premier international music business event’ - sources confirmed meetings between the music industry and ISPs. It’s believed that ISPs are being negotiated with individually, rather than as a group. “All of the ISPs are at the table meeting with the rights holders, but it’s not a roundtable,” said a source.
Current CEO of British Music Rights and former pop star Feargal Sharkey said he was optimistic at the discussions between the music industry and ISPs: “At this moment, I am completely optimistic. Three months ago these guys wouldn’t even get into the same room.”
It’s unclear what could happen if the music industry and ISPs fail to reach an agreement, as Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has already stepped back from a government implemented ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy.
For their part, ISPs are only too aware of the profit they make from file-sharers. If the latest reports are to be believed, around 6 million Brits use their internet connection for file-sharing. Alienating them could be a huge strategic error.
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101 Responses
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bummer.
A ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy would be a disaster for the economy, and if the government can’t see that, it should **** off :P.
I’m counting down the days to help do exactly that (**** off the government).
Given the reports shown recently here on TF, I sail to understand how the govt could possibly implement such a policy and have it stand in court.
i wanna leave this f*cked up country
its all gone pete tong
Where I live we would be burning tires in the middle of the street blocking all traffic for days at a time.
“what they perceive to be a serious threat to their business model”
Well, internet itself as well as the computer technology in general are threats to their business model. And I’m somewhat skeptical about the business model’s chances.
time to flee the country!
And where did Andy Burnham get the idea that it was government’s job to defend against “threats to their (obsolete) business model”? He and other corruptables need to get up off their knees, stop fellating the media industry, and realise they are supposed to be working for the people, not lining their pockets with industry bribes.
File sharing will live on. There is no intention to criminalise file-sharing and it will remain a civil offence. It will simply be a matter of hiding it better from the music industry.
There isn’t much chance of the government legislating a three strikes and you’re out policy as this will be challenged under european human rights laws. You cannot cut off someone’s electricity just because he uses it to physically copy CDs. In the same way you will not be able to cut off someone’s internet connection.
The current government will have to be extremely careful not to alienate people in 2009 as it looks very likely that they will lose the next general election.
Bye Britain,
Hello Sweden.
@ #10: Ditto - ASAP… =]
I’m off before 2009 bye UK hi NZ! Only trouble there is Internet is metered and expensive!
@9
I agree with you, Labour aren’t in a very good position after the income tax changes, crime rates, data leakage, economy suckage and the unkept promises.
However, you must remember there are a lot of people out there who don’t understand or agree with file sharing and an attack on so-called “piracy” could be seen as a move to defend the economy.
Personally, I think it’s highly unlikely that a loss in the next general election would be a result of aggressive action against file sharing, but more a result of general, all-round incompetence.
(Liberal ftw.)
They can go **** themselves if they think I’m going to let them be told what to do by those c***s. We need to protest people! NOW!!! I know saying it here won’t do much but maybe it can inspire a few to take action. I don’t think the ISP’s will be harmed that much by the loss of file-sharers as the internet is going to be used for TV, phone and surfing all in one. People will use the TV service and people will use the phone. They will also use video phone which bound to become more popular once the realiabilty can be sorted (removing file-sharers and their hogging of the bandwidth). I know they should provide us the service they sold us but they don’t want to spend money upgrading and would love to see their old networks free again. Certain ISP’s e.g Virgin and BT would love to help the BPI as they will have interests in selling music online themselves to their customers. No piracy means more of a market share for them to get their hands on.
That’s my thoughts atm anyway. Someone please tell me I’m wrong and convince me about it.
they’re probably just mad cos the french beat them to it.
If you encrypt the download how can the isp identify if it’s copyright infringed data, surely all they’ll see is lots of packets coming from different ip addresses?
We need to figure real ways to let these idiots know we’re not going to put up with capitalist b******s buying our dumb greedy government (and s**t are they greedy)!
I’m looking forwards to TPB’s info on encryption etc.
Mean while I won’t buy a damn thing from any of these corporate blood sucking parasites.
@16:
if they are in the peer list, encrypting the copyrighted material (usually fake) and distributing it, then they have proof that you are downloading with intent.
this is the end.
People keep voting for the same idiots. Don’t.
that politicians took a U-turn last year, until then he wanted nothing to do with the mater, now he cant be more interested on pushing this matter through.
He has been bribed, instead of trying to find a model that works for the people he is helping the music industry control a model that works for them.
He has been bribed.
If they start sending strike notices il just get my music off of allofmp3 like sites. or usenet
THAT’S IT, Everybody normal get out of London, we’re gonna NUKE the parlament and the Queen …
MU-HAHAHHAHAHA
FAGS.
@17
How about an using an anonymous proxy server?
Denmark is free…… good internet and Almost no Anti-Piracy Organization
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