eMusic boss raises UK net neutrality fears

Posted on 13 Feb 2012 at 18:26

The boss of the eMusic downloads store has raised concerns that the recent anti-sharing pact between UK ISPs and the music industry could threaten existing, legitimate music sites.

David Packman is worried that when ISPs establish their own music services, which they agreed to do in the memorandum of understanding signed in July, then they may favour those services over the likes of eMusic and Apple’s iTunes Store.

“Our concern is that in order to obtain the co-operation of the ISPs, there seems to be a quid pro quo. This is qualitatively different from licensing another half a dozen digital music businesses,” Packman told the Financial Times, adding that “you're penalising the good guys, not the bad guys”.

BT insisted that it has no plans to favour traffic to their own websites, though BSkyB was less reassuring, saying only that Packman’s comments were “premature”.

Net neutrality has yet to become a major talking point in the UK — despite the fact that many ISPs use traffic shaping during peak periods to prioritise certain types of internet communications, such as email and web browsing, over heavy-duty downloads. But on the other side of the Atlantic it is a significant concern. In 2007 the Comcast ISP was discovered to be blocking BitTorrent traffic, prompting an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, which finally ruled last month that Comcast had broken the law.

However that may not prove to be the case in the EU. Under proposals being discussed in the EU, it will to be legal to prioritise certain kinds of traffic, provided ISPs maintain a minimum quality of service and do not act anti-competitively, which would protect the likes of eMusic.

Author: Simon Aughton

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