Today's Music News

Crackdown on Pirates

Net users who illegally download face ban

12 Feb 08 -

Internet users in Britain who illegally download music may be banned from going online. That's according to leaked Government proposals published in The Times on Tuesday (12 Feb).

The reports, which also applies to films, outlines a 'three-strike' system where users would get an email warning if they are suspected of illegal downloading.

If they are caught a second time, they would be suspended from using the internet and then would face a termination of their contract if they were caught a third time.

Broadband companies who fail to enforce the ‘three-strikes’ regime would be prosecuted and suspected customers’ details could be made available to the courts.

The Government has yet to decide if information on offenders should be shared between Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

A draft copy of the Government proposals says: “We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file-sharing.”

A consultation paper setting out the options is promised within months and a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association said they remained hopeful that a voluntary agreement could be reached: “Every right-thinking body knows that self-regulation is much the better option in these areas.”

Six million broadband users are estimated to download files illegally every year in the UK and music and film companies claim this is costing them billions in lost revenue on an annual basis.

Responding to the early draft proposals that have been leaking, a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media And Sport told The Times: "Early drafts of our creative economy programme document were circulated to stakeholders for comment.

"The content and proposals for the strategy have been significantly developed since then and a comprehensive plan to bolster the UK's creative industries will be published shortly. We will not comment on the content of the leaked document."

The green paper is also expected to ask for a global arts conference, dubbed the World Creative Economy Forum which would be modeled on Davos.

This would involve the creation of a new college of digital media and the protection of live music venues such as the Astoria and the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Kelly Stooke

Bookmark with:

What are these?

Have your say

Comments so far

Robbie Guildford Surrey
You put something on the table that is free and people will take it doesn't matter if its audio or videoyou need to stop it at its sourceHowever people to people sights how do you stop it how do you know it happeningand why is it illegalIf I purchased a DVD and asked my friend to watch it with me and I lone it to him and he invited his friend to watch it what is being done that is illegal please explainThese people who download for profit to make and sell should be prosecutedother people who download because the music companies have a monopoly on a CD of 15 to 25 records and they only want one track its the Music companies that should be prosecuted for trying to resell there product

downer
people will find a way round that, or the "crackdown" will be too severe and alot of people will get banned for no reason.

sam/west london
its really easy if you download a song and its really fast, i mean you would'nt want to spen 10-15 pounds on just one CD!!maybe if they made the CD's or DVD's cheaper then it might help but some people just like one song so they start downloading!!

J - Manchester
Yes - record companies have taken the p*ss in the past - but it takes a lot of time and effort to produce music. People have to be paid for their work or they won't be able to produce more music. Very few musicians live in mansions. Are you people saying musicians should record for nothing? Or are you happy that people who pay for music legally subsidise the stuff you listen to free? It's easy to download individual tracks legally. You don't have to buy CDs.

ki-birmingham
its easier online and faster..because i dont want the whole cd, only the 1 song. and now i hav2 buy the whole cd, just for the one song from this artist.nah its not fair.i donwload from different artist 2 broaden my music knowledge and range.the govment is getting silly now. the music companies need 2 hush and lower there prices, and have their artis songs on singles or produce mixtapes n ting man. im disapointed i will no longer know whats new in america and have it at the tip of my fingertipsxx

Chelsea / London
This is so stupid. People will still carry on downloading music and films because someone will always find a loophole. The people doing this are the one who can't afford to buy CD and DVD's because of their outrageous pirces. Lower the pirces and maybe the problem will get better.

Jordan/Southampton
I cant belive some people dont have money to buy some of these music tracks ECT! You do that and there will be a major Uproar you cannot do this there will be alot of complaints and i think you dont have enough time to deal with all of those complaints i changed my mind about what i said earlier!

Jordan/Southampton
Dont ban the people who download everything!Get rid of the source that is the only way to stop this!

Asad - Birmingham
"Broadband companies who fail to enforce the �three-strikes� regime would be prosecuted and suspected customers� details could be made available to the courts".WELL FOR HEAVANS SAKE IF MY ISP DOES GIVE MY INFORMATION AWAY, I'll be sure to try and sue them! ISP's giving information to third parties, and it was stated in the contract that customers' information will not be shared.Oh Wow that seems very "legal" to me!NOT!!

Dave, Northampton
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. People on 100k+/million �/$ contract's earn yet more money. Yet it is the people most likely earn no where near that amount who probably have to budget to buy CD's & DVD's, are the ones that receive the penalties and prosecutions.

Georgina From Dudley
This is frankly pathetic if they weren't so dear we woudn't do this so it's the companies fault. All they want is money money money and some people havent got it !!!! It's really pathetic.

anika, london
If they did do that, then literally nobody would have internet.why cant they just make everything cheaper, then more people would buy them rather than downloading them for less than they are on the market.

Adam - Nottingham
This is quite frankly ridiculous. How would legislation like this benefit members of the British public? After all, surely legislation should be in the best interests of the public? This is to help huge international companies, largely based in America. What a joke.

JC
Anyone thinking of setting up a petition, it might be worth it with enough names.

Alex London
this is just scare tactics if they banned everyone from using the net who downloaded something illegal then no one would have internet the government has gone too far!

Peter / Warwickshire
lovely to see we live in a free country isn't it, breach of privacy by the net nazis. Maybe instead of complaining they should try and offer us a service thats worth our money!

Dave/Redditch
I have recently read on copyright and data protection act in wikipedia and accourding to copright laws in britain it is also illegal to copy otiginal CD's to MP3 format and use them on an Mp3 player, this makes it sound like that the gouvernment only act when companies lose money and when converting an wma format to MP3 means that the gouvernment will also act on Mp3 players and try and arrest and prosicute people with portable MP3 players. As for the data protection act the gouvernment have no right to access others data because what if the gouvernment come across someones very personal data, and that is what people only want to share with family or friends IPS's should also be in trouble if this personal data would just to happen to leak out to others to view, the ISP's could and would be sued for their personal data being viewed which would put ISP's out of business also the amount of money it would cost the gouvernment to pay for employees to monitor, record and go through all of that information.

david pierce tredegar
big brother loves you !!big brother is watching you!!! to have no freedom is to be free !!big brother loves you !!

Dave preston
"people buying & selling secondhand cds etc aren't they breaking the same laws" yes they are!!!The music industry could kill the second hand music market stone dead by offering back catalogue music @ 10p per track, then it would only be the "collectors" that bought those hard to find albums/cd's

Add Newcastle
one more step towards control of the internet for means of Propaganda and unified thought, ONLY LET THE PEOPLE DOWNLOAD WHAT THE STATE WANT'S! next we loose the right to vote

Liam, Manchester.
The internet is meant to be a free place, THE GOVERMENT ARE HUNGRY FOR COMPLETE CONTROL. Now they want to infiltrate the internet? become "nazi" like and control what WE DO? well im gonna keep on doing what i do!

Ravensblood Southport
ok ok, We can all give back the files we have taken and we all promise never to do it again...... now leave us alone!

Geoff Swansea
All this banging on about illegal downloads. What about the people buying & selling secondhand cds etc aren't they breaking the same laws?

n/a
what!!! I thought we beat the Third Reich.

Rahi, Worthing
It's freakin' annoying. Some music artists want to upload their songs onto the Internet instead of selling them on CDs. How can they ban downloading some songs which the artist WANTS people to download of the Internet? It's like Vista, everything's piracy!

phill, cardiff
If the music industry never released so much cr*p and made there albums cheaper, then people wouldnt download it, you buy an album and two songs are good the rest are cover versions or just rubish.and i also find it funny that nothing get's done about all the child pornography and perverts on the net, why aint we seeing big crackdowns on these user, why, because most of them are politicans etc, people in high places, either that or there making to much money from it.they will never stop people from downloading stuff, how can they tell the difference between a music file and a update file for a game.as it goes you dont see the games industry causing all this fuss, and there are millions doing the same.

Gianni, London
This is an absolute outrage. There's no such thing as a free country, can't go anywhere without millions of camera's tracking your every move now stepping over your privicy by monitoring what you download on the net. I can understand the government stepping in to stamp down on the sale of ilegal music and DVD's from those making a profit but those of us that download for our own private collection, is a joke.Next i'll get fined for lending my friends or family music or DVD'sIts just another way for those over paid "artists" to sqeeze some more cash out of you.Many people like myself who enjoy the artist's music or the director's film will end up spending money going to a GIG to see them perform live or out with your friends at the cinema on a friday or saturday nightThis government should be ashamed of itself for even considering it.Seen less rights stepped on by communist countries.

Ben , 16, Derby
If the government do this, more rules will most likely come in and it may even make people move abroad (like Jimbo, Cornwall) and the country will be left with only old people and immigrants. But thats maybe what they want.

Andy. Manchester
This is a blatant civil rights breach. Im not saying its right but its human nature to get a better deal and if its free people will always go for the cheap option. Im one of the menace but i always buy cd's at the gigs i go to because the money goes direct to the artist. Plus bands have to tour more and thats a plus in my book.

Anonymous, london
There is no way this will work. I admit, i do download music from file sharing. my main one being bearshare. But downloading msuic illegaly has its upsides. If i only want 1 song that was from a long time ago, i cannot find it on sites which sell songs individually for about 70p nor can i find a CD. its much easier to download it illegaly. also if i want 1 song in particular, i don't want to go out and buy a CD full of songs i don't want. i know i can buy it online for about 70p but that involves inserting my credit card details online, and as we all know, that can be very dangerous. With a very good firewall and anti virus, downloading music with corrupt files attached can be stopped and sorted out. Downloading illegaly is also alot faster instead of buying it online. downloads can be as fast at 10 seconds. entering all those card details can take almost 5 minutes. Downloading music may be preventing the respected artists from getting money, but its not us downloaders fault. its the uploaders who put it there for us to download. If the uploaders didn't upload it, then we wouldn't download it. make uploading illegal and downloading legal.

Ruksana, Harlesden
Oh what a wonderful country we live in..Better watch what I type here..incase I receive a fine or get banned by my ISP..Oh wait.."we still have freedom of speech" I hear..?Pfffffft

Colin Manchester
The big companies who have made millions already through greed, like their artists living in silly mansions all over the world want to rip us off again! They are criminals for charging the prices they do. They will never stop it - it' all about their wallets and making money out of hard working people. we all lose cash someway, like hidden bank charges and supermarkets marking up on their goods - what does anyone do about that? No one will be online soon.

chris accy
Civil liberties - bye bye - our internet service will be permanently bugged, first is file sharing, then what website's are being visited, then VOIP as it's not a telephone service it could be done without a court order. You wouldn't want the police to open your mail or bug your phone without good reason (and hopefully a court order), but the government wants to protect a failing business model and allow them to watch your every internet move! Down with privacy! Welcome to Big Brown's watching you!The ISP's are not responsible for what I do on-line, in the same way as BT are only responsible for the connection and not who I phone or the conversation

Southampton
In the "old days" (I'm in my 40s) it was about blank video tapes and cassettes - they wanted to ban them/restrict their sale. Also they tried to stop double cassette players from being manufactured!!People had less money in those days too that is a fact and there was no car-boot sales or E-bay or Internet, so it was an STRONG incentive to copy films and music.This is the thin end of the wedge. "They" also want to ban the sale of used DVDs/CDs on E-bay!!!"Bliar" and these "leaders" want to clamp down on the Internet FULL-STOP. Remember what Bliar said, "the internet is full of conspiracy theories times five" this is the thin end of the wedge. REMEMBER: First they came for the file sharers, and I said nothing for I wasn't a file sharer.......

Legion
This is the thought police gone mad, 1984 ON STEROIDS. Another BLATANT attack on civil liberties and freedom.If this happens I will buy blank DVDs and copy my entire music collection in mp3 format and go door to door passing them out *for free*. I will do this especially on University campuses and in pubs.They will then probably ban blank DVDs and CDRs this is the POLICE STATE, wake up, down with the Politicians who are in the back pockets of big money and the Labour-Lib-Con party Judas goats !

Anon, Anonsville
So what? If you protect yourself (firewalls and proxies) they can't tell what your doing anyway, you can't get busted unless your stupid, so this will never effect the big downloaders, it will just lead to families losing connections because of their stupid kids.

Mark, Swansea
Arrrrr! You�ll never take us alive!

Gary Anderson, Derby
An appalling development. The record companies must be behind this - their high-priced downloads are one reason for the popularity of illegal music sharing. Reduce the price of a track to 30p and I'll buy it.

Andy, Pontefract. West Yorkshire
Big Brother adds another thing to its "Big Bother Is Watching You" list.Free country, don't make me laugh

Jimbo, Cornwall
Unbelievable, what will come next, an exploding head if you think bad thoughts?!! A flat tyre on your car if you go over the speed limit?!! Where are we going here, a totalitarian state, see no evil, hear no evil, do so & you're banned? It will never happen, but if this comes through i'm moving abroad!!