Ben Gamblin Online - Blog: Internet bans for illegal downloaders

Internet bans for illegal downloaders

24 Feb '08, 10:38

The government has announced plans to force UK ISPs to curb illegal downloading and may even impose internet bans on such users. Although I have no problem with illegal downloaders being punished, I do have concerns about these plans.

It's well known that there is a piracy problem on the internet. BBC News reports that 6 million people in the UK download media illegally, and the music industry claim that copyright theft is what is causing their decline. Regardless of my opinions about the music industry, I do agree that people downloading copyrighted media does cause damage to these types of industries. Artists should be paid for their work.

However, my concern with the governments proposals is simple. Privacy. I wonder how ISPs will know whether someone is illegally downloading material or not? They cannot simple say that a download from a torrent or newsgroup is illegal. That would kill off a genuine method of legitimate file sharing such as sharing own works or GPL licensed software. They cannot say downloads of MP3 music is illegal - that would impact on genuine music retailers such as 7digital or eMusic. They could have a list of websites offering content for illegal download, but what if a site is miscategorised? Let's say a genuine online music download retailer is miscategorised. Are all it's customers going to be branded criminals?

I don't see this as being very workable. The only thing I can see being done is ISPs actually looking at individual downloads. That would have to be by spot checks due to the vast number of downloads being made. This is where my privacy concerns come in. ISPs would need to see genuine downloads as well as the illegal downloads. I don't want them nosing at my perfectly legal downloads thank you very much.

Besides, wouldn't content just end up being encrypted so that only the source and end user will know what it is with the ISP being none the wiser? Or are encrypted downloads going to be banned now as well? Speculation, I know. But a valid point I think.

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