UK Anti-Piracy Plans Cost More Than Music Industry ‘Losses’
As the UK file-sharing debate reaches fever pitch, with opinionated artists being shipped in by the bus load to condemn it, inevitably attention is turning to the costs associated with trying to end it. According to a boss at ISP BT, not only are the government’s plans doomed to fail, but could end up costing ISPs a staggering £1m a day.
As Lily Allen leads a procession of artists showing a united front against online music piracy and calls ever louder for the government to do something about it, the cold light of day has kicked in. Just how much is the hoped-for crackdown on illicit file-sharers going to cost?
Yesterday, speaking with the UK’s The Mirror, John Petter, boss of ISP BT’s consumer division, said that measures to tackle Internet piracy will be costly.
Noting that ISP profit margins are already small, Petter said he fears that the process could cost ISPs a staggering £365m a year.
However, according to Jupiter Reseach, whose figures the BPI uses when trying to convince others how much money they lose, the British music industry will lose £200m worth of business to online piracy in 2009.
If the BPI’s ‘losses’ figures are to be believed (and we have to go along with the ridiculous premise of 1 download = 1 lost sale in order to do so), saving £200m worth of business will end up costing ISPs almost double that amount.
“Their [music industry] claims are melodramatic and assume people would buy all the music that is illegally downloaded, which is nonsense,” said Petter, adding that laws are already in place to deal with illicit file-sharing, but the industry doesn’t want to use those particular ones because it would hurt their public image.
Petter’s final point is possibly the most important one. He believes that the war against file-sharing will lead to a technological arms race as Internet users find new ways to hide their activities.
Indeed, by spending a measly £3.00 per month on a cheapo VPN service from the likes of SwissVPN, it’s possible for any user to tunnel right out of the UK and no-one in the country will have a clue what they are doing on their connection. Not the BPI, not ISPs, not the government.
That’s around 10p per day to defeat a £1m a day system that isn’t even in place yet. Something doesn’t add up.

Pingback: Glyn Moody (glynmoody) 's status on Tuesday, 22-Sep-09 15:31:06 UTC - Identi.ca
Pingback: musikdieb.de » “Piraterie”-Bekämpfung teurer als Verluste
Pingback: Sir Elton John Joins Anti-Piracy Lobby | We R Pirates
Pingback: La lotta alla pirateria costa pi? delle perdite che provocherebbe
Pingback: La lotta contro la pirateria online costa più delle perdite economiche delle case discografiche - Commenta la tecnologia, la telefonia, i software
Pingback: La lotta contro la pirateria online costa più delle perdite economiche delle case discografiche « YBlog
Pingback: » La lotta contro la pirateria online costa più delle perdite economiche delle case discografiche
Pingback: El que guarda siempre tiene » Los planes anti-piratería cuestan casi el doble que la supuesta piratería
Pingback: Los planes anti-piratería cuestan casi el doble que la supuesta piratería « Me quedo más ancho que la hoja de un pino
Pingback: Sir Elton John Joins Anti-Piracy Lobby | InstantIdiocy
Pingback: Having ISPs Fight Piracy Could Cost More Than Claimed ‘Losses’ From Piracy | The-Informer
Pingback: Roy Schestowitz (schestowitz) 's status on Wednesday, 23-Sep-09 15:40:53 UTC - Identi.ca
Pingback: Links 23/09/2009: Big Win for GNU/Linux in Spain, Amarok 2.2 Now at RC1 | Boycott Novell
Pingback: [TorrentFreak]UK Anti-Piracy Plans Cost More Than Music Industry ?Losses? - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net
Pingback: click.logg | La lotta alla pirateria costa più delle perdite delle case musicali in UK
Pingback: BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates | We R Pirates
Pingback: BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates – FUCK THE RIAA
Pingback: BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates - P2P Talk?
Pingback: BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates | InstantIdiocy
Pingback: heti fnordok « /dev/blog
Pingback: BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates @ blog.idtorrent.org
Pingback: Užrašai iš skaitmeninio fronto #25
Pingback: Sir Elton John Joins Anti-Piracy Lobby | TorrentFreak
Pingback: BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates | TorrentFreak