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)
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 [6] Show All
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
8 references to this post
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 [6] Show All
Add your response