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05 February
Power, Water and Broadband: Digital Britain
Should ISPs Ban Illegal Downloaders?
by SoftwareGuru
Friday 30th January 2009
UK music fans will be relieved that their Government is more clued up than their Irish counterpart if the last week is anything to go by.
The UK government has canned plans to bring in new legislation forcing internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect users found guilty of downloading music illegally.
Broadband withheld
In Ireland, the High Court has in fact agreed to the controversial proposal meaning that household broadband can now be removed at the request of a record company.
David Lammy, the UK Intellectual Property Minister, told The Times that the plans had been scrapped because the legal issues involved were too complex to the point where “I’m not sure it’s actually going to be possible.”
The issue of piracy still exists but at least the UK Government has given its domestic music industry a last chance to reinvent itself before user habits condemn buying a record to the same status as sending a telegram.
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3 strikes and you're out?
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Power, Water and Broadband?
The major record companies will now be able to remove Irish broadband from homes that are found to download illegally. Could this decision affect UK users?
Ed Stourton summarised the position of the Digital Britain report as seeing access to broadband as being on a par with access to power and water: an essential service for the way we live now. A view shared by British PM Gordon Brown.
It’s impossible to see how you could square a belief that broadband is an essential service with arbitrary removal of that service on the whim of a record company.
Repeat Offenders
Yet the BPI, the body that represents the British record industry, wants all ISPs to sign up to a “three-steps policy” by which repeat offenders are disconnected if they fail to stop sharing copyrighted material.
Lord Carter, the Communications Minister, is to reveal his thoughts on the problem of illicit file sharing in his Digital Britain report.
UK music fans could yet face broadband services being withdrawn unless they become a lot more vocal in their contempt for this policy.
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Even better than the real thing.
The internet has changed the way people enjoy their free time. TV shows can be streamed and downloaded while bands' popular songs can be watched at anytime for free on the likes of YouTube.
The experience of going out, buying a record and enjoying it is simply an outdated concept along the lines of sending a telegram.
Technology and consumer behaviour has changed. The music industry has failed to adapt.
In its last breath to stay profitable it has completely missed the opportunity to create a new way to interact with music lovers and will now actively seek to remove their broadband.
Remember tapes? Imagine if playing a copied tape had resulted in your stereo being taken away.
It's a ludicrous thought and yet even that example doesn't go far enough to illustrate just how wrong this judgement is.
Don't be surprised if a new start-up company appears to fill the void in the same way that Google appeared out of nowhere and showed Yahoo! a thing or two about search.
Music fans will have the last say.
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What's best for music fans?
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Posted by
admin
at
09:49
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