UK ISPs have warned that plans put forward by the recent Digital Economy Bill (here), which aims to tackle illegal music, film and software file sharing (P2P) among broadband consumers, could push up subscription fees by a staggering £25 extra per year.The Bill proposed a series of letter warnings to consumers "suspected" of involvement with such activity and promised to punish repeat offenders by slowing or restricting their connections. Personal details would also be passed to Rights Holders for possible court action (heavy settlement fines etc.) and the most serious of cases could see individuals being disconnected from their ISP.
Impact assessments for the bill suggest that up to 40,000 households could be disconnected and the letter-writing campaign alone could increase individual subscription fees by £1.40. However the bill did pledge to make copyright owners pay a fixed fee to cover ISP costs after having to issue warning letters to customers. The Times reports today that ISPs are now calling on copyrights holders to contribute more to help cover their costs.
Charles Dunstone , CEO of The Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk , said:
“Broadband consumers shouldn’t have to bail out the music industry. If they really think it’s worth spending vast sums of money on these measures then they should be footing the bill; not the consumer.”
“Broadband consumers shouldn’t have to bail out the music industry. If they really think it’s worth spending vast sums of money on these measures then they should be footing the bill; not the consumer.”
Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Shadow Culture Secretary, said:
“It is grossly unfair that Labour expects millions of innocent customers to pay extra each month because of the actions of a minority. By their own admission this will make broadband unaffordable for tens of thousands of people, which flies in the face of government policy to increase take-up in disadvantaged communities.”
“It is grossly unfair that Labour expects millions of innocent customers to pay extra each month because of the actions of a minority. By their own admission this will make broadband unaffordable for tens of thousands of people, which flies in the face of government policy to increase take-up in disadvantaged communities.”
The government, which expects its measures to rake in an extra £350m from VAT thanks to a boom in legal sales, believes that the "overall benefits to the country far outweigh the costs". Similarly the music industry (BPI) has also suggested that the costs should be significantly lower than the "stratospheric sums suggested by some ISPs".
Many believe that the proposals themselves are simply unworkable and will end up causing more damage to innocent individuals than the guilty ones. Law firms currently track suspected illegal P2P activity by monitoring IP addresses, which are assigned to every computer when you go online, yet IP's can easily be spoofed, redirected, shared over big networks or even hijacked (open Wi-Fi networks etc.). The download itself could also be encrypted, making it nearly impossible for the ISP to verify.
Suspending connections based on unreliable data and without a trial seems like a gross abuse. Public wireless broadband networks could also be made unworkable, whole businesses and families could face a loss of access because of the actions of a single individual or hacker. There are also many ways to circumvent the methods used to track such activity, such as encrypted VPN's.
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Comments: 5
Andrew Robinson, Pirate Party UKPosted: 28 December, 2009 - 9:40 AM
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It seems that the Pirate Party is the only political partye on the side of ISPs. We propose legalising non-commercial file sharing, which would allow copyright policing efforts to be concentrated on dealing with the genuine issue of criminal CD and DVD counterfeiting gangs who make profit from artists without paying them.
It's worrying that the government have swallowed the music industry's made up figures for the supposed 'cost' of piracy hook line and sinker, yet have made no effort to count the cost to ISPs of not just bearing the burden of enforcing these new policies, but also the cost of lost subscriptions from people who won't pay for an internet connection without free content, or the cost to ISPs of moving from the 'download once' P2P system to a 'send the same content tens or hundreds of times' streaming business model.
AgrajagPosted: 28 December, 2009 - 11:30 AM
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It seems that the Government has swallowed the nonsense the media industry has been feeding them, hook line and sinker.
£350 million in extra sales indeed.
One illegal download does not equal one lost sale.
MarkJPosted: 28 December, 2009 - 11:45 AM
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£350m from the VAT of £1.7bn's extra sales.
JamesPosted: 29 December, 2009 - 6:48 PM
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The music industry says ‘one download equals one lost sale’, this is a flawed vision. It's probable that a large percentage of people who couldn't download the music illegally would not bother buying it, so their figures need to be revised based on this.
If the music industry wanted to actually limit illegal downloads, then they should be taking action themselves, instead of blaming everyone else. By implementing DRM and its alternatives, they would therefore limit the losses. However, if someone is going to pirate a media, then they will always find a way.
JamesPosted: 29 December, 2009 - 6:49 PM
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Another way is to give the music away for free or offer a donation system, where someone donates $1 to $100 for a downloadable album of music. I have heard musicians earning more money this way than the traditional route. Also, giving music away freely and therefore generating revenue from inexpensive concerts and merchandise, which cannot easily be pirated but sold at a price people can afford. Therefore the freely given away music can then be a promotional tool for other products and revenue streams.
One successful weekend musician has done this here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090120/1942463468.shtml
The lumbering dinosaurs in the music industry need to adapt, stop blaming other people for their greedy old fashioned ways.
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