Illegal downloaders 'face UK ban'- VM to Pilot Scheme

[steveo_mcg]

People in the UK who go online and illegally download music and films may have their internet access cut under plans the government is considering.

A draft consultation Green Paper suggests internet service providers would be required to take action over users who access pirated material.

Under a "three strikes" rule they would receive an e-mail warning, suspension, and then termination of their contract.

Six million people a year are estimated to download files illegally in the UK.

Music and film companies claim that the illegal downloads cost them millions of pounds in lost revenues.

The proposals are part of a Green Paper - a consultation document issued by the government - on the creative industries that is due to be published next week.

BBC

Here we go again. I generally only download US TV but i some how doubt they will make any distinction. As long as one company doesn't get involved in this kind of thing none of them will for fear of loosing custom but if it goes through as badly thought out govnt legislation then i can see this turning into a bit of a farce.

[Bindibadgi]

Yaaay.

How long til torrents turn on encryption?

[Khensu]

If I steal window frames from a window frames factory, do I get barred (after three thefts, of course) from buying window frames?

Whatever happened to "filing a complaint" and letting the justice system do what it's supposed to do? Yes, it's difficult, but that's the internet for you. Wasn't it Hubert J. Farnsworth (I own the DVDs, I swear) who said "nothing is impossible"?

[Shadow_101]

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

How long til torrents turn on encryption?

The sooner the better imo

[mutznutz]

All this coming from people who employ relatives who do nothing more then I make in a year, and then bugger off with £60,000 pensions

They can afford to buy all the radio 2 tunes they like because they tax us so they get their big wages

Ahh well end of rant

[Bogomip]

This is a great idea. Someone will bypass it soon enough yeah but its a step in the right direction. TBH (me included) people who abuse stuff should always have the risk of having that privaledge removed from them. This is a far better measure than being sued or something. 3 warnings and you are gone, its fair

Breach of privacy would be the only thing standing in their way imo.

[Ryu_ookami]

This is ridiculous unless they monitor everyones connection constantly how are they going to know what your downloading !!

[will.]

Scare tactics.

[badders]

The Key paragraphs being:

The Internet Service Providers Association said data protection laws would prevent providers from looking at the content of information sent over their networks.

"ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope," the association said.

"ISPs bear no liability for illegal file sharing as the content is not hosted on their servers," it added.

Surely there would be a MAJOR change in legislation required to remove all privacy from the UK internet?

[samkiller42]

ISP's don't need to see what your downloading. The servers do however monitor the amount of trafic on the system, as torrents use alot of traffic as it is constantly downloading/uploading.

Sam

[Pha3dr0n]

Me looks at the 1TB+ of downloads I've accumulated in the last 12 months and hopes this never comes to pass!!!

[BioSniper]

Thing is ok; how can they distinguish between a legal Torrent (Linux, Open office, World of Warcraft downloader etc) and an illegal one without overly invasive packet shaping/traffic sniffing?
What with digital distribution being the way forwards (Steam, iTunes, Xbox Live movie rentals etc) they will need a method to distinguish between legal and illegal traffic. What about dodgy content on say, youtube? Are they going to block that some how too?

Lets just hope they don't pull a great firewall of china on us :P

[Bindibadgi]

Packet sniffing - they already do it to monitor and shape traffic on their network. The problem is, there are legitimate torrents out there as well as illegal ones. What about accessing known piracy IPs?

[naokaji]

what about shared internet connections? as in a shared house? not everyone earns enough to live on his own, so would they cut off the whole house if one d/l's stuff and the others didnt leaving everyone without internet?

besides, how would they want it to work in case people start using encrypted services only?

two major things they completly forgot about, since they fail to think of such scenarios the whole thing is a guaranteed fail that will create nothing but trouble on the users end and cost on their end (our tax money to be precise).

[keir]

surly it should be, when people use over 40gig in a month they should start to monitor their traffic

[[Jonny]]

Originally Posted by keir

surly it should be, when people use over 40gig in a month they should start to monitor their traffic

Yeah, can't have them using what they payed for. :P

[bixie_62]

but the thing is, what about those people, who may, hypothetically say, download about a good 30/40gig in one day on a 24mb connection?!

[JADS]

You know we should be massing in a large mob around the houses of parliament, dragging our politicians out and giving them a beating they'll never forget.

Unfortunately as with most things these days we'll just roll over, complain a bit and then accept another horrendous breach of our civil liberties and freedoms by this corrupt Government of ours.

[dom_]

Don't get your knickers in a twist just because someone is threatining to remove your access to illegal file downloading.

[Tim S]

This is a valid discussion that is relevant to all bit-tech readers - I've opened it out to the front page: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02...f_by_uk_isps/1