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Virgin Media to block pirates from the Internet |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Monday, 31 March 2008 |
 Virgin Media looks set to become the first British internet company to crack down on customers who download music illegally.
According to The Telgraph, internet service provider and telecom company Virgin Media looks set to become
the first UK internet company to crack down on subscribers who download music
illegally.
Record labels have been lobbying for a "three strikes" regime that would see those who
collect pirated material disconnected from the internet. Virgin has been working
with music trade body BPI on a pilot project
which could see "dozens of customers" sent warning letters.
The trial by the UK's largest residential broadband supplier will go live within months and disconnecting customers who ignore warnings, a sanction favoured by the record BPI, remains an option. The trial will also be open to film and television studios.
Two years of negotiations between record labels and internet service providers (ISPs) have so far failed to produce an industry-wide agreement.
A spokesman for Virgin Media said,
We have been in discussions with rights holders organisations about how a voluntary scheme could work. We are taking this problem seriously and would favour a sensible voluntary solution. In February the UK government said it would implement legislation by April 2009
unless ISPs came to a voluntary agreement with the music and film industries.
According to industry sources, the Department for Business, Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform is due to publish a consultation paper next month, outlining
legal measures.
Right now, it's up to either the government or the ISPs to become the 'gatekeepers' of piracy over the internet. If it has to happen, I'd much rather have the ISPs be the gatekeepers than the government for one major reason. It's easier to switch ISPs than government.
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