Should illegal downloaders face a ban?
Posted 14 February 2008 at 8:03AM by Ian Betteridge in Connecting to the Internet
According to a report in The Times, the government is investigating the option of requiring internet service providers - such as BT - to cut off internet access from users who persistently share media files with others.
Needless to say, this has caused something of a storm on the internet, with organisations like the Open Rights Group questioning whether such measures would actually work while trade bodies like the BPI call on service providers to act on file sharing.
There is little doubt that the sharing of music and video files over the net has had some impact on creative companies - although exactly what impact it has had is moot. In the music industry, although CD sales have continued to decline, a 2004 study by researchers at Harvard Business School found that file sharing had no effect on whether people bought CDs, and may even boost sales. The BPI, on the other hand, claims that illegal file sharing is a key reason for music sales decline worldwide.
Either way, there's no doubt that the creative industries, many of which are threatened by file sharing, are of immense value to the UK economy. Back in 2001, the Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DMCS) issued a report which claimed the "creative economy" accounted for £112 billion of economic activity in the UK, as well as a million jobs.
So what do you think? Should ISPs be asked to effectively police their customer's use of the internet?
Tags: bpi, bt, bt broadbandoffice, dmcs, internet, isp, media files, the times
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Comments
2. At February 14, 2008 10:56 AM, John wrote:
I think if the entertainment industry were to cut the price of cd's and dvd's to a realistic level then they might find that sales actually went up instead of declining. As for ISP's monitoring people's use of the internet, I personally have seen many of my liberties eroded in recent years by an unsympathetic government and this would be yet another invasion of my private life. ISP's would have to monitor all activity on a customer's internet connection to tell if they were downloading illegal files or even receiving them by e-mail. Just how far would ISP's go to find out someone's surfing habits???
3. At February 14, 2008 11:41 AM, John Taylor wrote:
This government is the closest thing to a totalitarian regime we have ever had to endure. This is just another demonstration of there wish to control our thoughts as well as actions. I personally love owning cd's and have never down loaded music. However I think down loading free music would encourage sales as you sample first. Prince gave his last cd away in a Sunday paper and this apparently encouraged sales of his back catalogue. Oppose these proposals
4. At February 14, 2008 12:16 PM, boon wrote:
The onus should be on the music industry to come up with a better pricing plan for THEIR stock. Why should other industries suffer for their lack of initiative? If Music industries worked with the net rather than against it they might even find they have a very handy medium for various business interests including growth.
5. At February 14, 2008 3:22 PM, Chris Sabin wrote:
I appreciate that music artists own the copyright to the music and need to make money off selling their songs.
The american music royalty board is suggesting that the money an artist gets off a download track should be reduced from 13% of wholesale price to 9%. Well if im not mistaking aren't they suppost to be looking out for the artists?
This is not the right way to go about trying to clamp down on file sharing by allowing ISP's the chance to watch what im doing on the internet. All this will lead to is file sharing taking the next step ahead of the law. With everyone wanting (and eventually getting) faster broadband/cable speeds, more and more people will want the content they want. People will do whatever is required to get it. Either paying for it, streaming it legally or any other method deemed fit by that person.
The people who hosts the servers (Where they point you towards the peron who is sharing the file) are currently hosted in countries where their laws allow this.
As is evident by many things, one law in one country may not be in another.The creative industry failed to move with the times and is paying for it.
Prime example of a movie that did take full advantage was Snakes on a Plane, letting people help contribute to the script and getting big Sam.L Jackson to play the lead role. That captured a large audeince based on nothing but hype!
Look at some bands who exploited myspace, last.fm etc and becamse over night success stories.
If they were willing to use the technology to their advantage then this would not be the case.
Look at the success of itunes and other legal downloadable sites. Computers are becoming a bigger part of life. Now that you can hook them up to tv's and stereo systems for a complete multimedia package why would you need a cd when it is stored on your computer?
BBC iplayer anyone?(side question: does this require a tv licence to use? I dont have a tv in my flat so dont pay for a tv licence and dont want to pay £100+ just for this service?) Fox are even streaming shows after they have aired in the states to try and beat piracy.
6. At February 14, 2008 3:37 PM, Brian wrote:
File share sites today Freeware sites tommorow.
The music ind needs to get its act together.It's very greedy we all know the cost of blank CD's I work in the industry and the Band or Artist are lucky if they see £3 of the £14 or so pounds we pay in the shop.Lot's of the small venues have closed due to the cost of PRS and PPL Licence fees going up every year.New Bands coming up have know where to play and have turned to the Internet and are reaching out to people that way.ISP's Closing down sites and cuting you and I off the internet will not stop people from sharing.There are otherways to share as we all know.
7. At February 14, 2008 5:58 PM, Dark Djinn wrote:
Why would they consider such an obviously ludicrous proposition? Which by the way is unmanageable cos....if A was a member of say the BT FON community and tried to download/media file-share, would the entire community be shut down....better yet, A has an unsecured wireless connection which B taps illegally and A gets the slap on the wrist.
In any case, whether or not media is available for download has no bearing on whether or not I wish to buy a CD. I may want one song and not the entire CD or I may want a compilation of my favourites and not 10 CDs to get it from....does this make logical sense?
I think the government's time is better spent figuring out where the CDs lost from HMRC with details of everyone on benefits has got to by now. Or tackling crime....or even catering for the basic needs of society. When they have resolved all these issues, I will be happy to stop downloading music online.
8. At February 15, 2008 9:36 AM, Adam wrote:
The reason for CD sales declining is simple- customers are being gouged. A simple look at the racks in any major store will show any number of non-import, non chart CDs at over 15 pounds. bear in mind that the production of each unit only costs about 1.50, say a further 10% goes to the artist the rest is markup.
gouging, pure and simple.
9. At February 15, 2008 10:17 AM, Geotagger wrote:
The problem is, where does policing the internet end?
Yes, I agree that criminal activity of any nature is certainly bad, but there has to be legal alternatives that make it less attractive to do the criminal act.
10. At February 15, 2008 12:13 PM, anjanesh wrote:
why does the industry have to dictate laws ?
the latest development also suggests that the recording industry would have to pay for the lawsuits that might result as a consequence of the three strikes law.
Surprising is that the goverment is grovelling at the feet of the record industries feet showing more the usual spirit in this legistlation.
11. At February 17, 2008 11:35 AM, Emma Crabb wrote:
I think all illegal downloaders should have their service terminated.
It is because of them those who are legitimate downloaders have to face fair usage policy and caps.
12. At February 18, 2008 10:48 AM, Carl wrote:
As banks were being robbed they upgraded their security.
Why does the music industry not protect their content with the same principal?
Its like leaving your wallet on a bench in the underground and expecting it to be there when you return to it 30 minutes later.
13. At February 19, 2008 11:07 AM, Anonimous wrote:
yeah, ban us all! watch ecommerce dwindle and grind to a halt.
where an illegal downloader avoids paying 20 quid for an overpriced cd, theyre more likely to buy a lot of other stuff online. 6 million downloaders at least in the UK.. ban them all whats gonna happen to online sales which a lot of companies these days rely on.
stop coming to stupid conclusions that will never work, develop a system that comes with windows or mac where you pay a yearly subscription depending on how much you download or want to download in mb and you can download the content you want.
match the solution to the people not the people to the solution, which is the way things are going in all areas at this moment in time.
14. At February 19, 2008 11:45 AM, Sandy Boath wrote:
I would totally agree with a previous comment that is producers od CD's and DVD were to redice the actual cost of purchase then ilegal copying would amost disappear. We all know that cost to produce this media is pennies yet to buy them we are charge a vastly inflated price.
15. At February 19, 2008 12:29 PM, BriaN wrote:
I do download now & again and I also buy a lot of CD's If I could not download, it would not make me buy any more than I do now. a lot of the stuff I download I listen to & don't like so I delete them. Come on lets be honest there are a lot of people in the music business that are very rich & famous. It's no different to copying to tape like back in the old days. and what about recording films from the TV, The more technology lets us do these thing then the more we will do it. If the ISPs bann all those that download then many ISP's will have lost too many customers and then they will go bust. The music people should embrace the web, maybe give away one track off the latest album to give us a taster and if you do buy the cd they could then give us a good discount off one of the cd's in the back catalouge. Would that not be an incentive?
16. At February 19, 2008 1:34 PM, David O'Shea wrote:
If they ban people from shareing files, the internet will die. What do we do? Do we go back to the old days where all we see is XXX sites and nothing else, If people get cut off this would create a big proplem for people who use there connection for business.
What if you are in a big office and you don't know who is downloading films/music and then it gets cut off. If we lost our internet connection we would DIE, 99% of our business in done online and I think we should not have these NAZI like rules.
17. At February 19, 2008 4:26 PM, Emma Crabb wrote:
In response to David O'Shea, If your a manager in a big office and you dont know what your employees are downloading and if you get cut off it is your own fault for not putting in place systems to monitor employee activity and no one should ever rely on an internet connection for business, you should have backup.
I still say ban illegal downlaoders as the ones that they are hitting the most is the small Independant artists who do not have the backing of the major record companies.
18. At February 20, 2008 9:39 AM, Laura wrote:
All I can say is look at how much iTunes charges for a full album. It's normally around £7.90 which is a huge difference from what it costs in the shops to buy.
Also, look at the bands that have used it to their advantage, for example that guy a couple of years ago who made his single only available online but you still had to buy it - didn't he get to number 1 or something?
19. At February 25, 2008 7:16 PM, Jon wrote:
2 points. The first is that the big media companies are nothing but middle men seeking to guarantee their life style. Artists have, and will again, circumvent those big companies only if we can download their product. It's the easiest way for small artists to get known. Why should any government act to protect any middle man's profits ?
The other point is, how is any ISP going to know if the file I download is copyright or not ?
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1. At February 14, 2008 9:48 AM, Rob wrote: