5 Reasons Why Illegal Downloaders Will Not Face a UK Ban
There’s been a lot of buzz about a story The London Times ran this morning under the headline “Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads,” which also appeared on the BBC website under the even more alarming headline “Illegal downloaders ‘face UK ban.” Time to get a couple of things straight.
The Times says “people who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week.” Actually, this story is complete balderdash. But the fact that this nutty proposal is getting anywhere at all illustrates how ignorant the powers that be are about downloading.
Let’s get a couple of things straight –
1. This proposal was a draft consultation green paper, defined as “a proposal without any commitment to action.” The government receives many of these on a daily basis. They are like junk mail at Number 10 Downing Street. The Prime Minister’s toilet paper is more important than most green papers, and both are usually filed in the same place.
2. This proposal is totally and completely unworkable in the real world. ISPs will not accept liability for the contents of packets (nor should they), and it would be impossible for them to open and check if every single download and upload was legal or not without the entire Internet grinding to halt. This isn’t in the best interests of the government, the ISPs or the voters. Banning customers and exposing yourself to billions in liability isn’t a good business strategy. Criminalizing six million citizens and inconveniencing the rest is not a vote winner.
3. It would be impossible to tell the difference between illegal downloading and legal activities such as downloading software patches, using torrents to share stuff legally, playing online video games, using VoIP, photo sharing, telecommuting, and many others. The resistance from the private sector would be as strong as it would from the general public.
4. The very idea of this goes against the ruling of the European Court, which says EU member states are not obligated to disclose personal information about suspected file sharers. It would also fly in the face of Article 10 of the European freedom of expression laws, which gives every European the “freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
5. WiFi piggybacking and encrypted packets make it impossible to tell who is downloading what in the first place. These techniques are only getting more sophisticated, while for the most part, the content industries collectively remain as dumb as a box of hair.
So in summary:
Insert Toilet Flushing Sound FX Here
This idea makes as much sense as trying to ban people from singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to each other over the telephone network, or burning down libraries to protect the publishing industry. But what’s frightening about such ideas is that they are still taken seriously all over the world by powerful decision makers in government and industry who have absolutely no clue about how the Internet actually works, or the damage such laws could do to democracy.
Before there is any more discussion about this, the music and film companies need to definitively prove illegal downloads cost them millions of dollars in lost revenues. CD sales are falling because nobody uses them anymore, and Hollywood is in rude health despite the pirates. There should be no more talk about changing laws and spending tax payer’s money on this ‘problem’ until someone proves there really is one.
Furthermore, if there is a problem, tax payers shouldn’t have to pony up in the first place. The content industries need to stop braying at governments to protect inefficient business models and look at the real solution that’s been staring them in the face for ten years.
For those who are interested, my book: “The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism” is out now through Free Press, , and probably soon on a BitTorrent tracker near you ;).
Previously: Kuwait Government Blocks 20 BitTorrent Sites
Next: Danish Pirate Bay Block Breaks EU Law
147 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
What utter tripe.
I’d be interested in knowing who the putz was who drafted this in the first place. I smell a puppet in the pocket of the media industry.
can i get your book from bittorrent?
thanks Matt, I know I was buying into the hype but when these sorts of disinformation campaigns begin I turn to folks like yourself for insight and guidance.
keep it up
drive physical book sales.
Watch this space for more on that soon. :)
I agree with this post. But it’s worth noting that the purpose of this possible legislation may not be to stop ‘all’ illegal downloading per se. Rather, it provides the possibility to ban individual users from accessing the Internet who are the source of pirated material (i.e. seeders, distros). They don’t want to ban everyone, they just want an unbelievable amount of leeway to pursue their own objectives (which in this case is promoting the interests of a small sector of the economy and society).
As you mentioned, it’s both unfeasible and not beneficial to ban every single person who downloads pirated material off the the Internet. But that may not be the goal.
FUCK EM! i love to p2p.
[quote comment="288078"]can i get your book from bittorrent?[/quote]
Lolz0rs…
I knew this was a bunch of crap as soon as I heard it (which was, incidentally, via the missus, who came running into the den shouting “They’re going to ban all file-sharers from the internet!”
Mheh-heh… =]
Good article but you guys are missing the point. My understanding is that they will not filter and inspect “every packet” but rather continue to catch downloaders the old way (i.e. by connecting to a torrent, tracing the IP address to a UK ISP) - THEN it will be very easy for them to ask the ISP to disconnect the user.
That’s my understanding
hey Matt,
you got a piratebay link to that book? :)
@10 Please read the comments before and you’ll get his answer.
The 4 top UK providers have made a voluntary agreement with the hollywood fucktards to monitor and ban filesharers. As long as they can bypass European law, they dont need legislation to get what they want. As far as procsecution of providers and the giving up of details, the case against Telefonica set a precident where ISP’s CANNOT be forced disclose users details, I guess they couldnt give a shit about that law as it doesnt suit them.
Fucked if you do, fucked if you dont, the’ll do what the fuck they like.
@11 i was’nt talking about a ‘legal version’
rip>post link. :D
i read this link from the register,there,s an interesting article from the bpi at the bottom of the page about blanket licensing???,mabye the record comps are trying for another bite at the cherry,after all when there hit,s run dry after purchases they can continue to gather even more cash by these protests,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/
nice and succinct Matt, cheers, i was getting a lil panicky about this stuff (as i’m actually not doin great on the anxiety level at the moment) so thanks for the info. and i will probably buy your book, i don’t know why, i just prefer Paper Media. its nice to read on the bus, train etc…
When the British get inspired by the French, it is for a stupid law… Cause indeed, this idea is coming from my country France :(
Over 40 million people in the UK download and share illegal files. I don’t think the ISP’s are gonna say to the goverment. Oh yea! We will cut off millions of our customers losing billions of pounds. Funny Eh?
we cant stop file sharers, so lets just stop all traffic on the internet!
BRILLIANT!
[quote comment="288148"]Over 40 million people in the UK download and share illegal files. I don’t think the ISP’s are gonna say to the goverment. Oh yea! We will cut off millions of our customers losing billions of pounds. Funny Eh?[/quote]
hahaahha
im sure it will come down to some sort of licence method,and you cand bet the goverment will have there fingers in the till
I love the way you smashed that article to pieces. Nice! :D
I got an email once from my ISP saying I had been downloading files illegally and that was a polite warning. I had got tracked for downloading a game I already had, I as only downloading it in the first place because EA sells shitty quality disks that keep breaking!
I’m all for the Pirates, If I download music and I don’t like it I’ll delete it. If I really like it then I’ll buy it, but continue to use the Torrented one because it doesn’t have shitty protection.
Totally awesome, couldn’t agree more. Biggest load of bullshit I’ve heard for a while now. Can’t stop the people sharing the files so stop everyone else from using the internet…..? Cocks.
[quote comment="288148"]Over 40 million people in the UK download and share illegal files. I don’t think the ISP’s are gonna say to the goverment. Oh yea! We will cut off millions of our customers losing billions of pounds. Funny Eh?[/quote]
yeah tru.
TorrentFreak > BBC Tech
who wants to live in britain anyways?
this is never gonna get implemented…. and if they did, there’s always VPNs…. like it said in the article, it would grind the internet to a halt. DON’T BOTHER!
Good news i was getting worried …
as i thought i was gonna have a little man on the corner of every uk STREET.!
SAYING U WONT DVD…!!!!!
Great news…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li….
Take part in the poll.. so far 77% say No to banning :)
I take it enabling torrent encryption would make it impossible for an ISP to tell that a download is illegal?
[quote comment="288227"]I take it enabling torrent encryption would make it impossible for an ISP to tell that a download is illegal?[/quote]
No, not really. They could still see what you’re downloading, just not that you’re using BitTorrent to do so.
Woot Matt just (soon™) sold another book!
I wonder how long the shipping will take lol.. Never bought from Amazon before thought they were US only but apparently not.. :)
[quote comment="288215"]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li….
Take part in the poll.. so far 77% say No to banning :)[/quote]
If I can vote for banning the daily mail, I’m there!
I believe the whole point of this being so widely put out as a news story was just the UK government’s way of trying to frighten 15 year olds off of using p2p. Another thing that seems to support it is that the story kept getting repeated on the news segments on BBCthree (whose key demographic is 15 to 25 year olds) thing is the government just doesn’t get that this age group is probably the most tech savvy and is more likely to see straight through this bull.
[quote comment="288228"]
No, not really. They could still see what you’re downloading, just not that you’re using BitTorrent to do so.[/quote]
They could make a guess at it being Bittorrent, but they can’t see what you’re downloading unless they can crack RC4 on the fly (unlikely). Of course, the fact that you downloaded a .torrent file 5 seconds earlier is a bit of a clue. SSL torrent trackers required.
Just to correct a couple of inaccuracies in the article: the newspaper is called “The Times” not “The London Times”. This is important because it is actually a widely read national newspaper and is certainly not just a newspaper for London.
Secondly, a green paper is a proposal put forward BY the government. The artcile gives the impression that green papers are received by the government from some non-government organisation (e.g. the IFPI). This is not the case. Green Papers come from within government itself.
The government has stated “We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file-sharing.”.
There is still a good chance that this will not happen, the main reasons being that: 1. it gives ISPs the kind of power that only a court should have. A person must remain innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 2. Since the internet is now a normal part of life (e.g. like electricity supply) then to remove someone’s access to the internet will likely be in breach of his humans rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
European Convention on Human Rights.
?
Didn’t know humans had rights , I thought that was only the case if that human accompanied a large bank account.
[quote comment="288165"]im sure it will come down to some sort of licence method,and you cand bet the goverment will have there fingers in the till[/quote]
in uk it’s possible :P
1) take those 5 points, show it to the French.
2) See what they say before you dismiss it.
[quote comment="288274"]Just to correct a couple of inaccuracies in the article: the newspaper is called “The Times” not “The London Times”. This is important because it is actually a widely read national newspaper and is certainly not just a newspaper for London.
Secondly, a green paper is a proposal put forward BY the government. The artcile gives the impression that green papers are received by the government from some non-government organisation (e.g. the IFPI). This is not the case. Green Papers come from within government itself.[/quote]
It is and was the ‘london times’, ‘the times of london’ and latterly ‘the times’.
A green paper is proposed legislation by parliament not necessarily by the incumbent government.
Here In the UK, 34,104,175 people are estimated to have Internet access, say 10% illegal download stuff so thats 3.4 mill people illegal download, they all get banned so thats 3.4 mill X £15 per month = 51 million per month and 612 million per year.
there is more chance of seeing harry potter smoke crack in his next film than isp giving up over 600 million a year
I CANT WAIT TILL THEY START BANNING ALL YOU THIEVING SCUM OFF THE NET.
I HOPE THEY PASS THIS LAW AND I HOPE THEY PROSECUTE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU THIEVES. FUCK ALL Y\’ALL!
VIVA LA GFY.COM
[quote comment="288343"][quote comment="288274"]Just to correct a couple of inaccuracies in the article: the newspaper is called “The Times” not “The London Times”. This is important because it is actually a widely read national newspaper and is certainly not just a newspaper for London.[/quote]
It is and was the ‘london times’, ‘the times of london’ and latterly ‘the times’.[/quote]
If you’re writing for an international audience, or an American audience, it’s always best to stipulate it’s The ‘London’ Times, or people assume you mean the New York one. Same with the Observer.
The US has too much influence in the UK. They’ll try to get our ISP’s to declare identities, even if not legally obliged.
So the UK will MASS adapt to Dark Nets, and secure VPN’s, Usenet, and Relaxxs.
This is not what police enforcement really wants. Six million citizens adapting to untraceable totally private connections, Dark Nets.
I’ve just read a witty opinion piece in ‘The Telegraph’[UK Tory newspaper] : “Can Gordon Brown catch online pirates?”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/02/13/do1307.xml
they think if do this in every country going get all so called lost money back one of these days they are going have own up make better music and movies people want see and GFY no FUCK you VIVA Freedom
Good points TorrentFreak! That deserves a few hefty bags of jellybabies. Some yummy for ya tummy!
Wouldn’t this be a great oportunity for the users to test out some cool new encryption protocols?
The government has stated “We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file-sharing.”.
@35 is WRONG! What does ‘is-it-possible?’ have to do with government legislation? Governator Arnie (California) has passed legislation that new houses built after 2020 have to be “energy neutral”. How? Well, it’s not-his-problem, he won’t be in charge in 12 years.
well they will loose all there customers if they do broadband companys whould loose lots off money i dont think it can happen over millions do it every day even i do they should catch out them who copy and sell dvd and music not take there internet off them but if they do they will loose alot off money
My, that was so clear. Thank you
The only reason they think they are losing billions a year or whatever is because they are adding up everything that is downloaded… if i couldn’t download an album or film for free, i wouldn’t go out and buy it - i’d go without it! they actually think that each download would have been a purchase if it wasn’t available online! muppets. Any good film, you see at the cinema, why then pay £15 to watch it again (about 6 months after)?!
I wonder how long the shipping will take….
———
i am a young and handsome man from us. i just think internet is a good place to meet friends. i just wonder if i can meet a rich momma here, because i am at the beginning of my career and i need someone’s support..i uploaded my hot photos on SugarmommyMeet.com under the name piccolo , maybe you want to
check out my photos firstly!
@26
[quote]who wants to live in britain anyways?[/quote]
Me and the other 60 million people doen’t even want to live here.
It seems insane that the UK Government would even consider allowing corporations to spy on individuals and invade our privacy.
It seems like the first step in building a wall around the internet in this country like China, heaven forbid people should be freely able to exchange information.
If they ever tried something so stupid and unworkable it would do nothing more than force people deeper into the dark parts of the intertubes.
well im moving to america soon woop woop get out of this country lol
I don’t think it’s a useless as you make out. If they pass a law obligating ISPs to punish pirates then it won’t be hard for them to spot the illegal downloaders:
1 ) First see which users have the most traffic and traffic running around the clock.
2) Second check your log for the .torrent files they have. Doesn’t take a genius to spot the name of Hollywood films.
Sure this doesn’t prove it’s illegal but odds are it is.
It’s not in the ISPs interest to lose customers but if they are obliged to show they are punishing pirates then its easy pickin’s.
It all depends how strict the guv is in enforcing this. I bet at least 20% of customers for an ISP are pirating stuff. A major crackdown might deter some people but until they’re bust the users for copyright violiation and prosecuting them, no one will be running scared.
[quote comment="288538"]The only reason they think they are losing billions a year or whatever is because they are adding up everything that is downloaded… if i couldn’t download an album or film for free, i wouldn’t go out and buy it - i’d go without it! they actually think that each download would have been a purchase if it wasn’t available online! muppets. Any good film, you see at the cinema, why then pay £15 to watch it again (about 6 months after)?![/quote]
SPOT ON!
ISP’s simply won’t be this stupid. They are not inclined to ban over half of their customers.
[quote comment="288244"][quote comment="288215"]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li….
Take part in the poll.. so far 77% say No to banning :)[/quote]
If I can vote for banning the daily mail, I’m there![/quote]
ROTFL
[quote]The content industries need to stop braying at governments to protect inefficient business models and look at the real solution that’s been staring them in the face for ten years.[/quote]
My sentiments exactly.
People have always shared their music and films. Who [i]didn’t[/i] have a mix tape of their friend’s music when they were a kid? The only reason it’s receiving so much attention now is that sharing has become so much easier. Their business model was based on trust (or more likely the inability to copy) from the start.
When the media giants finally start trusting and respecting their customers, I have no doubt they’ll receive increased business in return.
Most people will willings pay for songs and films when you don’t treat them like criminals.
Or to put it another way… if you treat me like a cunt, I’ll act like one.
why is no one picking up on this?
everyone or most have super fast Internet as it states on tv and adverts from bt virgin etc.
you are all paying x amount a month every single 1 of you for this service, what does the adverts say?
20mb fast broadband download faster!
thats it right there, not browse the http but download, .. download what? do they offer a service or anything to use your 20mbit on? no, swap over to the info channel at virgin it actually states it is for downloading movies games and tv shows faster than say slower connections.
every single person has the Internet but not 1 single person yet has asked or said why they have it.
you have inet access for 1 purpose download you have 20mbit or faster to do just that download download download that is what you ALL are paying x amount a month for right?
or are you just payin it to browse websites of prety little flowers?
even the jackasses here are saying great i hope they do filthy pirates … but why do they need 20mbit or fast connections if they never download? why do they even have the intnernet because lets face it and be honest THAT IS ALL IT IS FOR! otherwise we wouldn’t need blazing fast 10/20/50mb! would we!
ISP’s know that any attempt to implement this allegedly proposed legislation is unenforceable.
How would an ISP be able to detect illegal downloader’s of ‘copyrighted’ files if for example a audio file called ‘copyright.mp3′ had its file extension and title changed to ‘001.txt’ and then uploaded to ‘wherever.com?’
The downloader upon completion of the download simply has to revert the file extension and name change of ‘001.txt’ back to ‘copyright.mp3′. Would the ISP have to, I presume then illegally download said file to confirm any suspected copyright infringement?.. Would they have to download, inspect and check EVERY file a consumer downloads….
Like many here I suspect there is no ‘proposed legislation’, that this is an attempt not by the British Government but by the BPI to test the waters or to scare/deter the uninformed from filesharing.
Its a fallacy that file-sharers are the so-called ‘piracy industry’. 99% of file sharers download for personal use not for economic gain. This myth is propagated by the BPI. Why doesn’t the Film and Music industry set up their own Bittorrent sites and make money from the advertising revenue such a site could/would bring in, as they themselves claim they do?
@62, You are forgetting the online gaming community in your assumption that fast connections are only for downloading movies and music.
all the news did last night was alert the rest of the population that over half of it anyway was filesharing so they instantly would be thinking hmm, im paying 35 quid a month for a service and getting nothing from it i am not getting my moneys worth… the rest of the people clearly are getting their moneys worth from their subscription
great so now they advertise half britan is doing it now wait for the other half to join in lol
these people who mass advertise on tv are funny they are just showing people who didn’t know just what to do
you dont need a fast connection for games at all the speed has nothing to do with it, i’ve been a gammer on CSS for 8 years right down from me having dialup to 20mbit between 4mb/20mb there is no difference and not every home user is a gamer who has fast broadband but you can be assured they download with it,
it’s a “Subscription” i pay that to download with their service its what they advertise it for and its what we all pay it for plain and simple
[quote comment="288148"]Over 40 million people in the UK download and share illegal files. I don’t think the ISP’s are gonna say to the goverment. Oh yea! We will cut off millions of our customers losing billions of pounds. Funny Eh?[/quote]
Are you on crack? 40 million! hahahahahah
What the hell is the ‘London Times’ ??
I PAY Virgin £37 a month for 20mb,they know & i know i don’t need that speed or expence to just surf the net lol, uk gov sucks, lets remember these threats next election time.
Pete wrote:
Over 40 million people in the UK download and share illegal files. I don’t think the ISP’s are gonna say to the goverment. Oh yea! We will cut off millions of our customers losing billions of pounds. Funny Eh?
eh??
Do some math mate, there are 60 million in the uk and at best 70% have internet. I think what you were referring to was that for every legal download it has been suggested there are 40 illegal downloads.
There are supposedly about 6 million people who download torrents in UK, a country that IS NOT part of EU.
The article was in the Times owned by a MR R Murdoch that tells you everything.
Anyway ive got VPN so best of luck to them ;)
I have just come to see that this also sends out another message other then they want downloaders to be banned !!!!
At no time does this new bill say or make it illegal to download ?
Yes they say it’s wrong and they will slap your wrists for you 3 times and then try to take your ISP off you but they still dont go as far to say it’s wrong and you will be taken to court as a criminal????
WHY IS THIS ?? if they have details why not just say it’s 100% illagal and take us all to court.
Its called ‘the Times’ not the london times…
Not all downloads are illegal. The last few weeks I have been making great legal use of my broadband with the BBC Iplayer, or downloading legal none signed music from jamando. Lets also include the new movies / Tv Shows available on both Xbox 360 and PS/3.
I also must download a database backup, latest source code, or the latest Linux distro. My Job!
So just because I want a fast connection, does not mean its for illegal use.
Peer-to-Peer is a file transfer system, nothing more. To be able to ban people without a massive legal fight, they’d have to be able to prove what was being transferred. That means packet snooping! This idea is insane, and will only drive a new industry in off shore encrypted VPN. Like it or not, if I’m downloading a movie or not, I don’t like the idea of my ISP scanning every packet, the same as I don’t want Royal Mail opening every letter sent to me.
Its a stupid idea, what ever your thoughts on copyright are.
Number 70 the UK isn’t part of the EU? Do I need to put dates down in which the UK has held the EU presidency? But I do know what you mean, the UK should not be part of the EU, that I agree with. I am of the opinion the UK should adopt the US constitution and change its name to The United Kingdom Of America. That way the Brits will no longer be confused and the world will know who the country bends over for.
As for green papers. Green papers do make it to law and I suggest all who say that they don’t they do some research. This is a scary idea but very plausible in a country like the UK. China and the US monitor their internet usage so why shouldn’t the UK? After all the Brits are the most watched nation in the world and one of the few nation in which the population is depressed (75% on antidepressants).
Good luck with your fascist country Brits, I left and never will come back.
Nice article. It made my day :)
I AGREE WIT YOUR RESPONSE. THE GOVERMENT FORGET THAT THE BBC IPLAYER AND THE SKY MOVIE LEGAL DOWNLOAD IS P2P AS WELL SO WOT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WIT THEM AND I THINK THE 4ON DEMAND IS AS WELL.
THE GOVERMENT IS SHIT.
Imagine how much VAT the government would lose on cancelled connections. It ALWAYS comes down to money - and votes.
I’m in the UK and I’ve worked for a major ISP in the past. The ISP’s could simply ban heavy users who would then leave in droves and sign up someplace else. The ISP’s could never allow this.
It’s similar bullshit to the recent banks announcement that they may charge customers for current accounts… A shrewd bank offering free bank charges would then clean up.
Don’t stress it guys, they’ll always be a way around, and I doubt we need to worry.
never believed anything the guvernment said anyways,don’t see any reason to start now.
Well, whilst the movie and music world think there losing there money, I am sure UK ISP’s wont just give up all there customers, lets remember, greed will always fight greed.
Hmmmmm banning file sharers or going after pedophiles using the internet. You couldn’t make it up could you. Would not expect anything else of this ridiculous dads army of a government.
Who said its the ‘Government’ who authored this green paper Pete?
First they give £2000 for every tax payer to bail out northern rock SHARE HOLDERS!!!! then they attempt to curtail my entertainmnet……. This govenment is totaly corrupt and in the back pockets of every corporation that will splash them some back door cash. Roll on election!
feckin labour gaverment is just as bad as the tories in the 80,s we need are own pirates party in the uk and if we got of are fat arses to vote we would win hands down power to the people
oh em gee
@ anyone who can’t work out what “the london times” is
A NEWSPAPER.
I agree with #83 can not wait for the elections.
Who said it was/is the Government/new Labour who authored the ‘green paper’?
I seem to rember David Cameron gobbing off in the media onece or twice in the media about ‘p2p’ applications.. though I’ve heard nothing from Brown nor his culture club on the matter.
Weirdly enough, yesterdays news story has in fact increased the amount of people file sharing.
My next door neighbour is now using Bit torrnet after being made aware of it by the Times (and me going round and setting it up). Well done to the times.
my government (uk) are a bunch of fuckpigs
This article shows a lot of common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is usually in short supply when it comes to listening to corporations with billions of dollars.
I completely agree that banning people who use BitTorrent is bollocks and will never happen/work BUT in a world where more people download and see content as being free - how do we pay the people creating content?
Who pays to have the multi-million pound a season drama series made if the majority of people get it off the net for free?
It’s ok in the UK where we pay an annual licence fee for the BBC - but what about the commercials? If ratings go through the floor because everyone watches for free through BitTorrent (without commercials) and the money the network gets goes down because of that - there won’t be any new great dramas and comedies made.
All TV will be cats being kicked on You Tube. Nice.
I would just love to watch our pm work out how to press the button to turn the system on….
[quote comment="289061"]
Who pays to have the multi-million pound a season drama series made if the majority of people get it off the net for free?
It’s ok in the UK where we pay an annual licence fee for the BBC - but what about the commercials? If ratings go through the floor because everyone watches for free through BitTorrent (without commercials) and the money the network gets goes down because of that - there won’t be any new great dramas and comedies made.
All TV will be cats being kicked on You Tube. Nice.[/quote]
I’d be happy to download tv shows from say ITV’s website that included adverts. Adverts as a revenue source has clearly been a very successful buisness model for years in TV land, and it cleary is on the internet (making Yahoo worth so much to Microsoft!).
Like people have said earlier, why not create their own torrent sites/own video files with their own adds to earn their money. The marketing potential of such ventures is massive…think of all the data they’ll get and segmentation they can do!
so.. for all the Media corps. out there.
How does Google make so much money?
They provide a service FREE to the end user.
No Ads i can see.
Think my dear boys.. You might have money and politicians in your pockets but you sure as well have no fucking brains.
@84, there is a pirate party in the uk, it can be found at http://piratepartyuk.org and other pirate parties can be found at http://www.pp-international.net/
It appears that economic intrest are far more important then taking a men’s/woman’s life these days but having said those intrest are defended and guarded by the politicians en lawmakers chosen by ourselves.
The bible spoke about these things happening 2000 and more yrs ago.
They should ban people from the streets for buying guns.
men will call themselves “super intelligent” homo sapiens sapiens the darwinist would say but actually their as dumb as they can be giving people jailsentences for downloading a movie ? i am waiting for the day that downloading gives you the right of visiting a jail …
just think about how many pm’s there are that have kids aged between the age of 15 and 25 who download illegal stuff them selves and who look at porn. Now who’s breaking the law the big fat cats sat at there big desk’s and pushing pencils just to allow illegal imigrants in our country for free.
has anyone got a good copy of “there will be blood”and bucket list?I SAY BRING ON DARK NET .FUCK U BROWN YOU SCOTTISH CUNT GO AND GOVERN YOUR OWN COUNTRY AFTER ALL ITS GOT ITS OWN PARLIAMENT .PS I THOUGHT THE BIT IN BRAVEHEART WHEN THEY CUT THE CUNT UP AT THE END WAS THE ONLY GOOD BIT IN IT.
I would strongly recommend that if (or when) customers start recieving letters from their ISP’s, that they ‘band together’ by setting up a petition on http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/new
This will show the government in no uncertain terms that the voters are unhappy with their actions!
Even people not yet affected can sign and promote the petition against these actions. The petition can be promoted via blogs, social networking clubs, e-mails, sites like this, etc.
Let them know that if they do not respect our human rights, privacy laws, etc that we will vote for the ‘other side’ (and encourage those who would not usually bother voting to do the same)!
As experience shows…the ‘other side’ are just as bad, but if Labour want to hang on to power…
Just a thought!
im surprised that the government doesnt have more important things to worry about.
I believe that they just want to scare people. They do not plan to cut half of the population off the Internet, but some individuals only. In the US RIAA does the same thing with its TE law suits (=> Terror & Extorsion).
It is impossible for any ISP to scan the whole internet traffic! They can however use the old fashioned method of searching for a recent mp3 and collect the IPs of people who made it available.
Anyway, the chance you get spotted by those shitheads is much smaller than a sudden death by a direct meteor strike :-)
simple peeps why not get peerguardian or u could try putting in a ipfilter sorted u wont get sussed
How about putting a “Piracy Tax” on internet conections? between £2 - £3 each month or maybe 10% of the bill? so £1 * 12million bills(guess) £12million a month for TV shows movies and music, and we get to download what we want. everyone’s happy :) All around the world and this would rock!
The only way they will stop my downloads is when they prise my cable modem from my cold dead fingers!
Right fucking on.
There is no such paper as The London Times, it is just The Times.
eventualy with pervertion e.t.c….. crap and stuff like this they will release internet licences and i think this will further complicate this crap
Perfect blog post.
[quote comment="289099"]Like people have said earlier, why not create their own torrent sites/own video files with their own adds to earn their money. The marketing potential of such ventures is massive…think of all the data they’ll get and segmentation they can do![/quote]
The problem with that is that most broadcasters (BBC and ITV included) rarely own all the right to the shows they broadcast.
You really need to think of TV broadcasters as ‘renting’ a show to broadcast a set number of times - after that the licence expires.
Every TV show could have a dozen different rights holders associated with it (music, script, elements) and they would all either need to give clearance or be paid for it to be made openly available online.
[quote comment="289871"]There is no such paper as The London Times, it is just The Times.[/quote]
Oh for instance like, its always been ‘The Guardian’.. and was’nt, is’nt known in some quarters as ‘The Manchester Guardian’?
Peter Loo wept.
I wonder if they will be able to monitor USENETs??
This is probably were true downloaders live
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/15/tiscali_bpi_agreement/
take a look
its not a positive outlook for the record companys but it is starting to happen
is this Matt Mason http://blog.bibrik.com/archives/2007/10/bif_and_matt_mason.html the author of the article, if so do I believe one of Gordon Brown’s puppets
correct.
From the BeeB :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7246403.stm
UK net firms are resisting government suggestions that they should do more to monitor what customers do online.
The industry association for net providers said legal and technical barriers prohibit them from being anything other than a “mere conduit”.
The declaration comes as the government floats the idea of persistent pirates being denied net access.
And in the US one net supplier has admitted to “degrading” traffic from some file-sharing networks.
Traffic control
Net firms have been stung into defining their position by the emergence this week of a draft government consultation document that suggests ISPs should be drafted in to the fight against piracy.
It suggested that people who persistently download and share copyrighted material could have their net access removed.
A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) said the 2002 E-Commerce Regulations defined net firms as “mere conduits” and not responsible for the contents of the traffic flowing across their networks.
If they didn’t do traffic management we would all complain
Gavin Johns, Epitiro
He added that other laws on surveillance explicitly prohibited ISPs from inspecting the contents of data packets unless forced to do so by a warrant.
The spokesman said technical issues also made it hard for net firms to take action against specific types of traffic.
For instance, he said, while some people use peer-to-peer networks to download copyrighted material many commercial services, such as Napster and the BBC’s iPlayer, use file-sharing technology to distribute music and TV legally.
In the US, Comcast admitted in documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission that it does “degrade” some traffic from peer-to-peer networks.
The spokesman added: “We know that all ISPs are involved in traffic management but that is to optimise the service for all their customers.”
A spokesman for Virgin Media said its traffic management system came into play during peak times - between 1600 and 2100.
Action was taken against any customer whose usage exceeded a limit associated with their tariff during that five hour window, he said.
“If you exceed that threshold we will drop your speed for five hours from when the excess is recorded,” he said.
Andrew Ferguson, an editor at Think Broadband, said net service firms manage their bandwidth in many different ways.
Almost all, he said, manage traffic but at certain times impose other systems to smooth out the peaks.
“Some firms will happily let you use as much as you like but will charge you accordingly, and business products that are more expensive often allow unlimited use,” he said.
Others impose charges on customers who regularly exceed their download limits and a few manage their system so users cannot exceed a monthly download cap. The limits that firms impose can also vary widely.
“Any ISP that does not do traffic management is not going to stay in business very long,” said Gavin Johns, managing director of net management firm Epitiro.
He said it was essential to ensure that services which have to be delivered in real time, such as voice and streaming video, were usable.
“Different applications use different ports and have different payloads,” said Mr Johns, “They look completely different from a network point of view.”
“If they didn’t do traffic management we would all complain,” he said.
Mr Ferguson from Think Broadband said although traffic management was common, net providers imposed it in contrasting ways.
“What varies is the degree it impacts users and the openness of providers in telling users it exists and what is and is not managed,” he told the BBC News website.
“Traffic management has a poor reputation as in many cases it is used to keep bandwidth costs down for a provider with little respect to the consumers’ wishes,” he said.
Dont the ISP’s already have this in place but under the name of ‘ Fair Useage Policy ‘, the ISP’s would lose a sh*t load of money because there would be no need for fast Internet speed’s, there’s Virginmedia going down the pan £35-£45 for 20mb, no need for anything faster than 4mb if your not allowed to fileshare.
Awesome writing Matt.
You made my day and made me laugh harder than ive ever laughed at torrentfreak. (which ios alot.)
We need more articles from you. :)
well i had problems with my isp with internet speeds im with tiscali by the way!! 8 meg
and i told the nice fella on the other end of the line i was getting bad speeds when i download he even said himself he had bad speeds at times when downloadin films or music !!
so if file sharing was such a bad thing why would he be doing it he knows what the protocol is so there you go even the staff see the internet as being very leniant when it comes to file sharing
the only people going to suffer the consequences is the uploaders spreading every thing round the world in the first place 1ce they get rid of the source of the problem no1 will be able to download nothing unless it was actually from the record companies etc… themselves
p.s. by the way tiscali have a good way of limiting how much you download using up your bandwith
it doesn’t matter how many downloads you have as 1 on its own or as many as you want they still only let you upload 40 kb/s an im on a 8mb line!!!!!
All this was probabaly proposed by the same guy that suggested smokers should require a licence. You know the raving idiot that they have locked in the little back room at number 10.
@97 biggus dickus
If they do ever ‘catch’ anyone, i hope its you…its cunts like you that make kids like Bin Laden
PS the rest of you thanks for putting my mind at ease. Just about to watch a new film
free shit rules
peace
[quote comment="288147"]When the British get inspired by the French, it is for a stupid law… Cause indeed, this idea is coming from my country France :([/quote]
Isn’t that the same place where Blair & Bush got the idea that Iraq was hiding WMD’s?
If so, then we probably have nothing to worry about, right..?!?
Thanks for the article & associated links, i’ve enjoyed reading them all.
what a great article, well done
On this subject, I just posted a reply to Paul McGuinness’ ‘police the internet so that we can keep making money’ speech at midem, here: http://www.mediafuturist.com/2008/02/welcome-to-paul.html
I thought you may enjoy this
“…Let me ask you this, Paul McGuinness: do you really advocate web sites, communities and networks scanned and censored, emails read and screened, Instant Messenger conversations monitored, Skype calls supervised, USB sticks DRM’ed, hard-drives sealed, flash memory cards locked, rootkits and software locks on our computers, a read-only web, the end of remixes, and the implementation of an online police state that without a doubt will only bring us new censorship and the demise of fair use and free speech while the un-paid and unlicensed trading of music will soar to new heights in 100s of new ways that we don’t even know about today…”
By Kate Holton
LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The bruised and bloodied music industry appears finally to be winning its battle to force Internet providers to act over illegal downloading, after years of seeing its wishes fall largely on deaf ears.
Britain said on Friday it would impose legislation on Internet service providers (ISPs) in 2009 if they did not work with the music and film industries to curb illegal file-sharing.
France has introduced a policy of denying Internet access to those who repeatedly download illegally.
And in the United States, ISP Comcast Corp has complained that customers overwhelm the network by using file-sharing applications like BitTorrent.
But the plan is hotly contested by British ISPs, who argue they are mere conduits and not responsible for content, while analysts caution that those engaged in piracy will simply discover new methods to share music without paying.
The developments follow years of lobbying by the music industry — which has been turned upside down by illegal downloading — and latterly by calls for help from the powerful movie business.
Global music sales fell around 10 percent in 2007 and the industry estimates that only one in 20 of the tracks downloaded was licensed, costing the industry potentially billions of dollars.
“This is a major turning point,” John Kennedy, the head of the international music trade body, the IFPI, told Reuters.
“Three years ago I stood up in Brussels and appealed for help from the ISPs and initially I got a very warm reception. But since then there has been almost no cooperation.”
RAMPANT PIRACY
The music and film industries argue that ISPs benefit from the songs and movies available online, making their Internet connection more valuable, but they have done little to counter the rampant piracy that can follow.
Under one plan by the IFPI, the trade body would search peer-to-peer networks like Limewire to identify those heavily sharing files.
It would then take a screen grab, noting the IP address, number of files shared and the time and date, which could be passed on to the ISP for a warning letter to be sent. If the user does not desist, they could lose their Internet connection.
But a spokesman for ISPA, the body that represents ISPs, said there were many problems with the suggestion, such as who would pay for the enforcement.
Nick McDonald, an intellectual property expert at law firm Browne Jacobson, also questioned what would stop infringers from simply joining another ISP.
“A system of data exchange would need to be implemented and this would require unparalleled cooperation between competitors,” he said.
The music industry, and increasingly the movie business, has been forced to seek legal means after seeing piracy eat into its business. But high profile law cases around the world have yet to deter illegal downloaders.
A report due out in the next few weeks by media law firm Wiggin and Entertainment Media Research suggests 70 percent of users who download unauthorised content said they would stop downloading illegally if they received an ISP warning.
And that would be welcomed. The British Video Association estimates that online piracy in the download market alone costs the audio visual industry around 53 million pounds ($104 million).
At the annual industry meeting in Cannes earlier this year, Janus Friis, who once terrified the media industry with file-sharing network KaZaa, said the music industry was beginning to move from “stick” to “carrot” approach, citing legal online services Last.fm and Imeem as leading examples.
And Screen Digest music analyst Dan Cryan agrees that this is the route the industry needs to take.
“I’m just not sure this ISP plan will change much regarding piracy,” he told Reuters. “(There are) other systems that get around this, where you can’t see who is uploading.”
“I’m afraid the horse has bolted and the only way the record industry is going to be able to contain piracy is to offer better services at a price that is right.” (Editing by David Cowell)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7330191
The music and film industries are losing money because they are currently churning out a load of crap that no one is interested in. These dicks still want money for old rope.
Anyway, if they do succeed, we can always go into Asda and buy the media, take it home, copy it, damage the disk and return it for a refund under the consumer credit act. That’ll teach the greedy fat twats.
Set up more CD trading/swapping stores. Trade disks online, chat coms etc. Never buy from big labels.
Still don’t know why govts would want to stop a major revenue source. We pay tax on every payment.
If ISPs did ban users they would force said users to pay out their contracts, rubbing their greedy illicit hands together. Refuse to pay. That will deter them.
[quote comment="292408"]well i had problems with my isp with internet speeds im with tiscali by the way!! 8 meg [/quote]
BZZZT! Your ADSL connection is advertised as “UP TO” 8Mb. Very important distinction…
That gives arseholes like tiscali all the manoeuvrability they need to give you a shitty connect.
Get yourself some fibre - or, if not available, at least standard cable.
Nice.
So now I can leave Azureus on all day and night!
Cool, Ta.
http://www.willbrownonline.co.uk
Thanks Matt, i was getting worried. I’m new to p2p and was nervous at first, but at the end of the day, it’s just so easy. And the amout of people who fileshare is unbelievable;
“Over 40 million people in the UK download and share illegal files. ” As Pete said.
They cant stop us!
They never will!!
Thanks
yep
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