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Helen
SP Moderator
Reged: Thu
Posts: 999
Loc: UK
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Quote:
Virgin Media has sent about 800 letters to customers warning them that they should not be downloading illegal music files via file-sharing sites.
It is part of a 10-week campaign it is running in conjunction with the BPI to "educate" users about downloads.
The BPI, the body which represents the UK record industry, told the BBC that "thousands more letters" would be sent.
Its stricter stance on illegal downloaders might result in some ISPs being taken to court, it told BBC News.
Refuseniks
The BPI wants all UK ISPs to sign up to a so-called three strikes policy - where users of file sharing networks get two warnings and are then disconnected.
So far only Virgin Media has officially signed up and it is keen to stress that currently it is running an education-only campaign and that no-one has been thrown off the network.
Virgin said the wording on the envelope which contains the warning letter sent to 800 customers - which threatens consumers with disconnection - was a "mistake".
This would be reviewed in mid-August, said a Virgin Media spokesman.
BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor told BBC News that the body was prepared to back up the education campaign with legal action, including taking ISPs to court.
"If we have to go to court, we will go to court and we will win," he said.
One customer who received a letter told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat programme that he was unhappy with Virgin Media.
Will McGree received a letter in June, warning him that legal action could be taken against him.
He said: "It's doomed to fail. Virgin Media will lose a lot of customers over this because people don't like to be accused of stealing music over their morning coffee.
"It made me feel betrayed. I was under the impression that I paid Virgin Media money to keep my internet connection protected and safe."
He said no-one in his flat had been file-sharing and that it was possible someone had accessed his wireless network from outside the building.
Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said the letters were a disproportionate response from the music industry.
"We need to protect users from punitive measures," she said.
She said the music industry had to be in a position of offering a viable alternative before it clamped down on the activities of some users.
"Stopping illicit file-sharing might not be as effective a measure as trying to monetise it," she said.
Some ISPs such as Carphone Warehouse, have refused to participate and the BPI did not rule out the possibility of taking such refuseniks to court.
Others, such as BT, have sent letters to subscribers threatening them with disconnection although it said this is not a new policy.
"We have not joined any "crusades", the telco said in a statement.
"We do work with various bodies to help them protect their copyright material and will sometimes pass on warning notices to customers on their behalf where we feel this is appropriate.
If a customer continues to be in breach of our terms and conditions then BT has the right to suspend or terminate that customer's account, though we work closely with customers to avoid this where possible," the statement read.
The industry has been given until spring of next year to find a solution to illegal downloaders or face legislation.
More here.
TBH, I'm kind of surprised I haven't had one yet. If I do get one, the Carphone Warehouse is looking pretty good to me.
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"You can't take something off the Internet. [...] It's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool. Once it's in there, it's in there." - Joe Garelli, NewsRadio
[My Rapidshare folder]
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1oldminer
Established Member
Reged: Mon
Posts: 862
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While I don't download music myself as my pc is not up to it as well as a slow dial-up connection, I can certainly understand why people download music off the internet in the first place, legally or illegally due to the outragous cost of buying a cd (which costs less than $5.00 cdn, from what I understand to produce) and you may get one or two songs that you like on it anyway.
Its really the middleman, not the artists that is root of the problem here. Maybe if the distrubiters in the record industry didn't hijack us with price gouging on the cds we buy, people wouldn't have to download thier music. One time I wanted to buy a cd from the states which a PBS station promoted during a break in thier program promoting an irish-celtic band. The cd would have cost $100 cdn, due to shipping/handling/duty costs and other expenses added to the original cost of the cd which was quite expensive to begin with.
But as for going after file sharers, I can see Virgin Media going after those who might file share thier music to hundreds or thousands but not for file sharing to friends. 
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tlhwraith
Veteran
Reged: Thu
Posts: 1061
Loc: Florida
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seems like an outstanding way for Virgin Media to drive subscribers off of their service. All you need is one ISP to not sign up for the "3 strike policy" and rest assured that ISP will get a lot of new subscribers, and they know it.
It seems some in the music industry stil think that file sharing can be stopped. Although I do see why they have a problem with it, that genie is already out of the bag. At this point the only thing industry can do is actually dial technology backwards to try to protect their business models, and the consumer demand for new fangled things is just too high to see that happening.
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snoop
Reged: Sun
Posts: 17761
Loc: Northern Ireland, UK
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Quote:
TBH, I'm kind of surprised I haven't had one yet. If I do get one, the Carphone Warehouse is looking pretty good to me.
That's who I'm with  ....well AOL actually but Carphone Warehouse own AOL UK now and if you do an IP check it shows up as 'Carphone Warehouse' . A lot of the problems (mainly slow speeds) that I had with AOL are gone now too. I don't use limewire or bittorrent anyway because I use newsgroups instead ' You can hide the files in zip folders when you are downloading them and that way it's more difficult for them to trace what it is
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>My Video Archive - Updated Regularly<
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haydaddict
Worshiping Hayden
Reged: Thu
Posts: 2042
Loc: Wherever Hayden is
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OOOOh im scared right now. 
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Since when obsession is a bad thing
Hayden Panettiere HQ Pictures
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The HB
DeFer DeFlowerer
Reged: Wed
Posts: 12563
Loc: Land of Kangaroos & Drop Bears
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 Kaylee DeFer
 Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Kristin Kreuk
Autumn Reeser
Kaley Cuoco
Summer Glau
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redvee
Veteran
Reged: Mon
Posts: 1054
Loc: Bristol
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Not had one of those letters and not expecting one but I have had letters from VM about traffic management/throttling. They give you a certain amount of traffic depending on your BB speed and if you exceed either the DL or UL limit then you are throttled to 25% for a period of 5 hours. More info about this can be found here.
http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php
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Other Clips etc, Maxim Vidclips.
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Irresistible
Veteran
Reged: Thu
Posts: 1028
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Thanks for the heads up about the letters/warnings.
I havent had any problems with virgin media aprt from the throttling which is more of a minor inconvenience than anything else. There are 3 of us who use my connection and we download plenty but we get practically everything from rapidshare.
We dont use limewire or torrents and i think that is what the isp's dont like as they are a constant drain on there networks whereas rapidshare downloads instantly and quick..i know which i prefer anyway and would rather pay a few euros for instant downloads.
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budbundy
Established Member
Reged: Tue
Posts: 551
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skip the letter and send me a virgin.....thats it, go after the customers, not the sites on which all of the illegal downloads occur.Because after all, the sites aren't uploading or distributing the content, they are just allowing millions and millions of people easy access to them.
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