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Tue, 12 Feb 2008 UK government plans to stop file-sharing

UK government is considering proposals to force ISPs to boot file-sharers off the internet

Jonny Evans

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The UK government is considering applying rules that will see people here who illegally download music and films kicked off the internet.

The government is considering a draft consultation Green Paper which suggests ISP's will be forced to take such action against such users, who would receive an email warning them to stop before seeing their service suspended, and finally terminated.

The BBC reports six million people each year are estimated to download such media illegally. The proposals are contained in the consultation document on the creative industries which is due to be published next week.

ISP's which fail to implement these rules could be prosecuted, and details of individual file-sharers would be released to the courts.

According to the Times (which first reported the proposals), the draft paper states: "We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file sharing."

ISP's have been meeting with entertainment industry chiefs in an attempt to produce a voluhntary scheme for policing piracuy, but these have yielded no action at this time.

UK record label body the BPI this morning released a statement in which it said the industry wants to partner with ISPs: "To create new services that would deliver even greater value for music lovers, artists, labels and ISPs. An internet that rewards creativity, while offering music lovers unprecedented choice and value for money, is in the long term interest of all of us.

"We simply want ISPs to advise customers if their account is being used to distribute music illegally, and then, if the advice is ignored, enforce their own terms and conditions about abuse of the account. But despite some agreements in principle, the ISPs refuse to do this on any meaningful scale.

"For years, ISPs have built a business on other people’s music.  Yet they have paid nothing to the creators of that music, and done little or nothing to address illegal downloading via their networks," the BPI statement claims. 

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