policing not job of ISP's

[torledo]

BBC NEWS | UK | Policing internet 'not ISP's job'

Chief executive of carphone warehouse doesn't believe it's the job of isps's to police internet usage of they're customers on behalf of the bpi, and that they're merely a conduit.

I have to say i agree with what he's saying plus the 2002 act clearly defines them as such.

It's clear that they're under pressure from the govt. and those BPI halfwits to self govern.....and it does worry me that if the ISP's don't comply wilfully then the government wil force legislation on them. But legislation could take years to come into effect, and ISPs should not buckle under pressure from the likes of the BPI due to the threat of legislation.

There is the larger issue of varying policies from different ISP's with regards to bandwidth throttling and inspection of peer-to-peer traffic. But then you'd have to pretty dumb to go with the likes of tiscali or virgin media...who are more likely to bend over backwards for the bpi.

[Friez]

The problem is, it won't stop anything and even then a lot of the time they'll be chasing up false leads.

For instance, I quite often purchase 12" Vinyls and have a huge collection. I buy them from various online shops, most of which use mp3 clips to promote the track itself (so I can hear a clip before I buy). If they see me downloading those mp3s, quick! Arrest him, he must be illegally downloading mp3s! (Despite the fact I usually purchase said 12" version of it straight after).

If they blanket block mp3s, I won't even be able to purchase more for my collection (since I won't know what i'm buying) so it will do even more damage to their sales (and likely said webshops will go out of business, leaving only the highstreet shops standing).

MSN Messenger has a similar annoying anti-mp3 policy, if you send a file and the reciever clicks the link to the downloaded mp3, MSN attempts to delete it (a stupidly flawed system, but you can see what I mean!).

This is extra annoying because I produce music myself and am in constant contact with various other producers, and we quite often share our music between each other.

Even if they were forced to police the web for 'mp3 downloaders' they'dd only discover it'dd be impossible to police. Quite frankly the BPI need to shut up and stop threatening ISP's and get off their LAZY ARSES and actually hunt down the major DISTRIBUTORS (not downloaders) of illegal mp3s and bust them themselves, rather than get someone else to do their dirty work.

But they'll only run into the same problem anyone else will. The recording industry has always had this stupid fascination with piracy. They tried copy protecting CD's. That worked well didn't it? How about stopping casette tapes being copied? Yeah right.

Whatever the next medium will be, you can be sure the Movie/Record industry will be keen to tear it down, despite the fact that ultimately if they used the medium sensibly they can score more sales than ever. They need to stop threatening the consumer, or blaming the latest medium but instead chase down the pirates themselves, the ones who make the illegal copies, good luck at doing that though!