Crackdown launched on illegal downloads

[Diver]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/2008072...y-8b21ac8.html

Details of possible sanctions to be imposed on compulsive illegal downloaders are not yet available.

Some experts called for web firms to impose annual fees to cover the cost of downloading or reduce the broadband speeds of individuals to stop them from sharing files.

[NickFitz]

"This is something of a step into the unknown for the internet providers, music industries and ministers," Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of British Music Rights told the Times.

"But we can't go on without it - no business can survive after losing as much revenue as the music industry has," he added.

How's about "No business can survive after churning out as much worthless garbage as the music industry has"?

[PerlOfWisdom]

I thought that home taping killed music.

[RichardCranium]

I thought that home taping killed music.

Not quite. But video killed the radio star.

[wc2]

"But we can't go on without it - no business can survive after losing as much revenue as the music industry has," he added.

Builders will never survive the downturn in the housing market.

Or they might if they adapt

[chris79]

Hope they realise that if they DO decide to limit download speeds, then nobody will have any reason to have fast internet anymore.. I mean, to surf the net other than to download you don't even need a 512k connection.. never mind 8mbit or beyond.

[Spacecadet]

Hope they realise that if they DO decide to limit download speeds, then nobody will have any reason to have fast internet anymore.. I mean, to surf the net other than to download you don't even need a 512k connection.. never mind 8mbit or beyond.

pay per view video.... now that iPlayer and the channel4 thing and soon skys new system are all taking off the ISP's will want to free up the broadband for all of this on-demand entertainment, which means kicking the freeloading illegal downloaders off

[NickFitz]

pay per view video.... now that iPlayer and the channel4 thing and soon skys new system are all taking off the ISP's will want to free up the broadband for all of this on-demand entertainment, which means kicking the freeloading illegal downloaders off

What you say makes sense, but presupposes that the ISPs have an intelligent perspective on the future of their business model and how it needs to be adjusted in the light of technological advances and the rapidly-changing attitudes that customers have to a variety of ways of consuming media.

Given that I lost them at the word "intelligent", I very much doubt that ISPs will manage anything less moronic than the music industry manages, which seems to be along the lines of "Let's make our customers hate us, and then we'll all be rich!"

[VectraMan]

pay per view video.... now that iPlayer and the channel4 thing and soon skys new system are all taking off the ISP's will want to free up the broadband for all of this on-demand entertainment, which means kicking the freeloading illegal downloaders off

So we have a two tier internet: 8Mb to the BBC, Sky, or any other video content provider that pays the ISPs, and 512K for "general" use.

[expat]

I thought that home taping killed music.

Coffee-on-keyboard moment! Isn't this the same industry that tried to get player pianos banned in the 1920s because they would kill live music?