When was the last time you bought a CD from a record shop? It’s a long time ago for some of us. But then the music industry has never been in a better position in terms of audience reach and you only have to look at the number of people wearing earphones on public transport to see evidence. The answer, of course, lies in illegal file sharing and downloading, peer to peer. It’s the internet equivalent of sub-letting a bedroom. The ISPs are at war with their customers who download illegally. But now one of the biggest, Virgin Media, are about to become much more militant about things.
Virgin have joined forces with the British Phonographic Industry to catch anyone who illegally shares files across their broadband service and those people will face letters, then threats of disconnection followed by legal action. It’s going to be a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy for Virgin users pretty soon.
There are currently 6.5 million broadband users in the UK who share files and many of those are with Virgin Media. Their gung ho attitude might be ethically sound and be benefitting the music industry, but it’s not immediately obvious what Virgin are going to gain from this recent stern action.
There are quite a few loop holes in the problem. Many people are making their own music and getting accused of it being copyrighted music because it has a similar file name. There is also the problem of customers, who are having their WiFi used by people without their permission, being accused of illegal downloading when it’s not even something they are aware of. These could end up being get-out-of-jail-free card excuses or could result in ISPs, such as Virgin, coming down hard on the wrong people.
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