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Britain threatens piracy legislation

KATE HOLTON

Reuters

Latest comment posted at 8:57 PM EST 24/02/08

ISPs must begin working with music, film industries to curb illegal downloading by April 2009, government says ...Read the full article

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  1. Joseph Whistle from Canada writes: Quick, download everything right now. Once you have everything, forget about anything new, because nothing new is worth it.
  2. Andrew Cheng from Canada writes: What do they mean by "repeatedly"? Once a day, a few times a week? What if you're like my friends who download one giant 1080i file over the course of 3 days?
  3. Luke P from Vancouver, Canada writes: The Canadian courts have ruled (rather decisively, I might add) that file sharing is legal. Without legislative motivation, I highly doubt ISPs in this country will be implementing such measures anytime soon.
  4. Sam Snead from Canada writes: This is unenforceable is any reasonable way. The only purpose of the law would be to "scare" those not aware, from sharing music/movies.

    The ISPs will not voluntarily agree to anything, too risky. Whatever is done will have to be imposed by government.

    Here's what the government should be more concerned about. If their laws require privacy breach to enforce, what legitimate business or person would be willing to use on services on that segment of the net? How much revenue would this lose? Yes, the traffic may be routed differently, entirely unaffected ... but still that ghost is out there ... why risk it?

    ISPs are not being hardball about this, there is simply little that can do.

    The best the music industry can do is join the digital delivery bandwagon, set a reasonable price, and hope that most people would rather pay the price then spend the effort getting it elsewhere. This is the only real protection the industry has ever really had, price point.
  5. brian bishop from Brantford, Canada writes: This is hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing!!

    Can you imagine the lawsuits that could be launched everytime an ISP has to cancel someone's subscription because someone said that person was downloading an illegal file.

    Before an ISP could even cancel someone's subscription the individual would need to be charged & convicted of an offense. Consumers do have recourse when services are canceled without just cause & if nobody proves their doing something illegal, so much for just cause!

    Least we forget who's responsible for providing the burden of proof in such instances, & it isn't the individual who's service is canceled.
  6. Robert Boyd from Windsor, Canada writes: Yes, but the industry can encourage the politicians to change that - not that I'm suggesting that our politicians can be bought:why buy when you can rent?

    " Luke P from Vancouver, Canada writes: The Canadian courts have ruled (rather decisively, I might add) that file sharing is legal.."
  7. Chris W from Slugbury, Canada writes: This is a great example of governments getting involved in something that they don't understand. I agree that, yes, file sharing is becoming a real problem for the music industry, but they have brought it upon themselves. They just don't want to admit it and want to fix it the easy way by "buying" a solution from government.

    Governments should maybe audit the record labels to see where all their hardships are coming from before imposing any laws and sanctions on the consumer to help the fat cats at the labels keep eating like pigs.
  8. Alberto Bayo from Canada writes: The music/entertainment industry seem to think this issue is of great concern to the fabric of society. Take note...you're not nearly as important or relevant as you think you are.
  9. Robert MacDonald from Canada writes: Viv la revolution!
  10. Sam Gallagher from Calgary, Canada writes: When I worked in the music industry (record distribution) as a teen in the 1970s, there were OBSCENE mark-ups for garbage products. A $7.29 LP album in the department store (list price then), was $3.50 at the wholesaler level who in turn purchased the product from the label (WEA, Capitol, A&M, etc.) for a mere $1.80.

    Remember 8-tracks and cassettes? These were manufactured in the cheapest way possible, and on the crappiest tape stock. AND, the industry had the nerve to list price them at $8.29 to $10.29 !!! (with the same mark-up structure).

    Only with the development of high quality cassettes by Memorex, Sony, etc. did the consumer finally realize they were being ripped off. CDs came along and the horrendous mark-ups continued.

    The recording industry has had DECADES to prepare for digital music, but they were greedy and did not invest during the "glory ripoff the consumer" days.

    Technology caught up to them and surpassed/defeated their monopoly structure. It is truly sad that they now cry the blues to government for a crack down on the very consumers that they cheated for DECADES.

    A pox on all their houses, and viva la illegal downloads! It's payback time!
  11. Paul who is from Vancouver, Canada writes: .
    As mere conduits, it's NOT the ISP's job to police the Internet.

    These elected fart catchers for the music and film industries had better figure that out in a hurry.

    After music and film, what's going to be next?
  12. Stude Ham from Outremont, Canada writes: of course the downturn in the music indutry's fortunes have had nothing to do with the putrid quality of their products, the overall economic disaster in the wake of huge errors with the ABCP's, the rising costs of taxes, food, clothing , and shelter... and so on...

    no... it all had to do with those durned, infernal, scarlet pimpernel type of digitally formatted music downloaders... and uploaders... and others.

    YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!
  13. Jimmy Jam from Anywhere, Canada writes: ISP's and governments do nothing about child pornography on the internet, but My God! The music industry says they are losing money and it's a call to arms. Priorities seem rather skewed.
  14. Jen G from Canada writes: It is a frightening thought that government's are trying to police the internet through ISPs. It is a slippery slope and I was pleased to read that the ISPs were pushing for voluntary participation. This also made me wonder how this could be enforced. I'm in the 20-30 age group and have been participating in downloading for 6-7 years now. Most people I know participate in downloading. Are the ISPs going to report all of us, or only those who download too much? The article stated that there were 6 million people in Britain downloading. That's a lot of monitoring. I agree with Sam Gallagher's comments the music industry has been screwing consumers for decades, but can't accept that the technological tables have been turned. Consumers don't want to buy the crap they sell, so we've begun sharing the gems we already have.
  15. Frankie @^_^@ from Canada writes: The industry is putting out nothing but garbage. Stuff not worth a dime. What they are worried about are the enormous salaries they are getting.
  16. Frankie @^_^@ from Canada writes: what the governments are saying is like saying....all car manufacturers are responsible for every accident. Car companies now have to make sure no one gets into one of their cars intoxocated.
  17. Frank N. Stein from Canada writes: Years after ripping and gouging the consumer, record amd movie producers are getting thier just dues. What comes around, goes around.

    Download, download, download. What price can you put on hollywood junk these days. Junk is usually free.

    The producers can embrace the revolution to digital downloads, or continue to lose the war. All empires fall unless they can adapt to change.
  18. Frank N. Stein from Canada writes: Blaming ISP's is like blaming the government for drug trafficing since the government owns the roads which drug trafficers transport their goods.

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