Virgin Media To Spy On & Threaten Downloaders 349
Mike writes "Virgin Media, the UK's largest cable-modem provider, has decided that it will spy on its users to protect record industry profits. Starting next week Virgin Media will send letters to thousands of households where they suspect music is either being downloaded or illegally shared. The campaign is a joint venture between Virgin Media and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the major record labels. The BPI ultimately wants Internet companies to implement a 'three strikes and out' rule to warn and ultimately disconnect the estimated 6.5 million customers whose accounts are (supposedly) used for regular criminal activity. In other words, you download a few songs and they'll come along and cut off the one wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly."
markets and competition (Score:4, Interesting)
Here in the San Francisco area, for example, there are locally owned ISP companies that have focused on high quality service and support and have grown and down well while providing DSL at faster speeds and lower cost than the larger providers.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
So, will this be a P2P dragnet? (Score:3, Interesting)
From TFA:
I think the real question here is how Virgin intends to "catch" subscribers. Will any form of P2P traffic result in a letter? TFA, while full of feel-good rhetoric about damages to our vibrant economy, is scant on details in this regard.
Before everyone says "Aren't Virgin Bastards?" (Score:4, Interesting)
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39290371,00.htm [zdnet.co.uk]
http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2008/02/25/uk-isp%E2%80%99s-must-stop-illegal-downloads/ [techwatch.co.uk]
(You've got to admire that approach to democracy out of sheer morbid fascination, really, haven't you. It amounts to "You're not doing anything illegal, but if you don't stop doing it we'll make it illegal!")
Virgin Media haven't really got any choice here, and I think we'll see similar announcements regarding other ISPs within the next 6-12 months.
Re:Seems simple enough! (Score:5, Interesting)
There's more than one "criminal" here.
I agree (Score:3, Interesting)
but you must understand that the attack on P2P is really an attack on free press and has the same purpose as the other, more serious violations. The point is to shut down political opposition, which in turn threaten established economic interests. All weapons are being used to identify, intimidate, harass, silence and eliminate opposition. Cutting a person's net access is the modern equivalent of exile. It will happen to those identified by wiretaps. Those that persist face the threat of search, arrest and torture. If we allow those in power to consolidate these tools, we will not be able to remove them.
Re:What's wrong with this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you see the difference between singing a song on a street corner with a hat on the ground and seeing a sidewalk sale and walking off with CDs?
And to be honest, here at least, I think the penalties for being in posession of a knock off CD or DVD are way more harsh than for stealing the same from a store.
all the best,
drew
Re:That is what comes (Score:1, Interesting)
There was a message posted to all the groups on the old news.ntlworld.com server about a month ago.
It said to change your newserver to news.virginmedia.com and that the new servers had longer retention on the binary groups amoung other things!
I changed over and the binary groups are much better now. alt.binaries.abandonware is not carried anymore though, so you can only get mostly illigal stuff.
The right hand giveth and the left hand taketh away.
I guess this is why people don't talk about usenet.
Re:Because no one will sneakernet songs (Score:2, Interesting)
Within 5km of where I live, there are several malls (one huge one, several smaller ones) and countless other small stores located in strip plazas, where pirated CDs and DVDs are available by the thousands if not millions. Six new-release DVDs for $10? No problem. Hollywood? Bollywood? Euro art films? East Asian cinema? No problem. CDs and DVDs filled with mp3 music? No problem.
This activity has been going on for years and years without pause despite various "crackdown" efforts I read about in the news. It is so utterly brazen that if I had one shred of sympathy for the **AA I would probably find it galling. But instead I find it funny, and strangely reassuring, to to see such rampant and unstoppable piracy on display in the real world.
Re:Just you wait (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Broadband providers and Lost Revenue (Score:3, Interesting)
Broadband -
2 Mb = 9 pound/month (Size M)
4 Mb = 16 pound/month (Size L),
20Mb = 26 pound/month (Size XL)
Digital TV -
40 Channels - Free (Size M)
90 Channels - 9 pounds/month (Size L)
145 Channels - 19.90 pounds/month (Size XL)
Landline Phone
Talk Weekends - 11 pounds/month (Size M)
Talk Evenings/Weekends - 14.14 pounds/month (Size L)
Talk Unlimited - 18.95 pounds/month (Size XL)
Mobile Phone
Talk Anywhere 200 - 20 pounds/month
Talk Anywhere 400 - 28 pounds/month
Talk Anywhere 800 - 40 pounds/month
A single customer could be paying as much as 50 pounds ($100/month). Virgin already lost 84,000 customers from the lost of Sky One/News, so that is a large amount to lose.
Re:I agree (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, that's why open source software is decades behind proprietary software and there are so few open source developers.... oh, wait, it's not like that. Maybe they have plenty of developers and state-of-the-art software in most areas because they attract the people who care about producing a good product, rather than manufactured stars who just want their money. Kind of like the musicians of old whose copyright privileges only covered someone else trying to steal the credit of composing music. You do know that there were musicians before music could be recorded and controlled by the record companies, right? I wonder why, as their copyright so limited, they would bother, since there wasn't much incentive for them to be musicians at all by your argument.
You can't ignore them. (Score:5, Interesting)
These are the reasons corporate assholes fear a free press [lewrockwell.com]. They want to be above the law in every way and they don't want you to have a way to complain or do anything about it.
They just don't get it ... (Score:4, Interesting)
At what point will the powers that be in the record industry realize that they will never get back to making billions off of CDs? What a bunch of whiny little bitches.
The world changed. But rather than adjust to a new business model (heaven forbid!), they're bullying ISPs into policing the Internet and litigating individuals. All in an attempt to return to a market which will never again exist.
Worse yet, the MPAA is doing the same thing. They could move first-run movies to pay per view today and make billions, but instead they're sticking to their guns, staggering release dates to try and maximize DVD sales. In the meantime, people are becoming increasingly comfortable downloading rips and screeners off of the various torrent portals.
This all could have been avoided (and in the movie industry's case, would be avoided), if the corporations would adjust to new technologies instead of trying to squish them. If the Itunes Music Store had opened before Napster, it would be a totally different world.