Government begins moves to cut off file sharers

 

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Posted on 12 Feb 2008 at 10:55

The government will begin moves to force internet service providers to cut off persistent file sharers, when it publishes a green paper on its proposals later this month.

A draft version of the paper proposes a "three strikes and you're out" approach. A warning email will be sent for the first alleged offence, followed by service suspension from the service and finally termination of the internet connection.

But asides from this commitment to "require internet service providers to take action on illegal file-sharing", the Department of Media, Culture and Sport is vague on precisely how it will about identifying sharers, what kind of appeals process will be open to anyone unfairly accused of sharing, and whether ISPs will be forced to exchange personal information about subscribers.

"There are still meetings going on and consultation to take place, so nothing is finalised," said a government spokesman. "The strategy document is to be released within the next couple of weeks."

The BPI, the UK music industry's main lobby group, said that the government should be applauded for taking action.

"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," said chief executive Geoff Taylor.

The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) said that it does not support abuses of copyright law, but that does not mean that ISPs should not be held accountable. Not least because tracking all the dat that passes over their networks is nigh impossible.

"ISPs cannot monitor or record the type of information passed over their network," said an ISPA spokesperson. "ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope. ISPs deal with many more packets of data each day than postal services and data protection legislation actually prevents ISPs from looking at the content of the packets sent."

But the BPI says that technological and privacy issues are irrelevant.

"Now is not the time for ISPs to hide behind bogus privacy arguments, or claim the problem is too complicated or difficult to tackle," Taylor said.

The Open Rights Group believes any attempt to disconnect sharers will fail.

"A hard core of dedicated illicit file-sharers will instantly route around any IP sniffing that goes on by using encryption. Then they'll develop tools for less tech-savvy users to take advantage of encryption," said executive director Becky Hogge. Meanwhile legitimate internet users run the risk of being cut off.

"It's estimated that 6 million people swap files illegally on the web," Hogge said. "Behind a lot of those people will be households using their internet connection for a range of purposes - they might be using it to run a business, or access government services for example. The government will undo a lot of the good work it has done towards making Britain an e-enabled society if it starts cutting of internet connections willy-nilly."

Author: Simon Aughton