Piracy in the headlines again!
Captain Jack Sparrow is back…..
Oh wait, no he’s not, this is music, film, game piracy which is hitting all the news sites yet again. Virgin media in association with the BPI is sending letters out to around 800 ‘file sharers’ according to the BBC.
Virgin Media has sent about 800 letters to customers warning them that they should not be downloading illegal music files via file-sharing sites.
Sigh, when will the BPI learn? There isn’t any evidence that downloading ‘illegal’ music actually harms the music industry. In fact it seems to be the opposite, in that people who download ‘illegal’ music are more likely to actually buy! It’s even more amusing when the BPI admits that the current models for selling music are broken.
Then we also hear that four BitTorrent users, who downloaded a pinball game (that retails for £8.99), have been ordered to pay £750 in interim damages for uploading copies of this game. Reading the news stories however and we find that the four didn’t even turn up to contest the case, so there was no choice but to find for the plaintiff. DOH! Apparently this firm of ambulance chasers, Davenport Lyons, uses a company called Logistep to gather evidence, then contacts the owners of the property being shared, and offers to chase down the ‘pirates’ on a no win, no fee basis. A quick Google for Logistep turns up reports of illegal data collecting, and French lawyers being banned from practising law, due to working with this company. A pity the four didn’t bother to defend themselves, as they could have cited that, putting question marks around the evidence presented, and probably getting the case dismissed?
And finally yet another over-hyped headline, this time from the USA, that the administrator of a BitTorrent site has been found guilty of ‘conspiracy and felony copyright infringement’ and faces up to 10 years in prison. While it is true that he was in charge of a site that uploaded copies of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the last time I looked, that film had made some serious profit.
Maybe all this stuff being uploaded, and then downloaded, actually gives people the chance to make an educated choice about what to spend their money on? If they stopped being so greedy, and offered legal downloads at a reasonable price, people would pay, simply because it removes the hassle from searching for and downloading the latest film/game/music.
Sources:
BBC - Letters go to music file-sharers
The Register - Court slaps UK BitTorrenters
The Register - DoJ sinks another EliteTorrent admin
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Craig
I presume Virgin took the leap first because of their strong ties with the music industry.
Personally I think it would be in the interests of ISPs to create a simple whitelist of well known file sharing and download sites etc and just ban access to them - easy enough to do and to keep updated.
Of course people could get around it but it would stop most people and they could say they were doing something about it.
They would then be seen to be doing something whereas if they keep ignoring it the government will legislate and we can only imagine what a hash they’ll make of that.
Cheers
Rod
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Rod
I would guess it’s more because Virgin want to rid themselves of customers that cost them money in bandwidth, in an already tight market, than anything to do with ties to the music industry.
It’s not actually Virgin (or any other ISPs) responsibility to ‘police’ the internet. The BPI should pursue the people who host the files, and the sites that promote them, as well as the advertisers that support the sites. Trying to bully people into submission will just create an alternative market place, where people will buy full DVDs of albums from car boot sales and markets.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Craig
not sure I agree with you about the bandwidth issue.
Most people using the old NTL now Virgin set up are cable customers with phone and TV etc. They are part of a package so they won’t want to lose them.
This story has a long way to go yet and I think we’ll see more ISPs doing something - whatever that may be