Virgin warns illegal downloaders: stop or face prosecution

[Jenjie]

The age of illegal music downloads could soon be over. The UK's largest provider of home broadband is to warn internet users building up vast libraries of music that they could be prosecuted.

 

 

From next week, Virgin Media will send letters to thousands of households where music is either being downloaded or illegally shared. Many of the recipients are likely to be the unsuspecting parents of teenagers who hoard free downloads offered by file-sharing services. Research shows the majority of them are unaware their children are breaking the law.

 

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 used for regular criminal activity.

 

Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of BPI, said the partnership between ISPs and his industry needed to flower, adding that the deal with Virgin was a "significant first illustration of this".

 

"Virgin Media is the first ISP to publicly address the problem. It is a socially responsible ISP and I think other ISPs will look at this and see progress. I am very encouraged they have engaged with us. They understand the rights of musicians," he said.

 

"Education is the absolute key to reducing the amount of illegal downloading ... new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued."

 

Virgin has stopped short of threatening any of its 3.5 million subscribers with disconnection, saying it first wants to "educate" customers during a 10-week trial campaign. Their letters will, however, be accompanied by a stern written warning from the BPI, which will threaten both disconnection and a court appearance for those who continue to download illegally.

 

Campaigns in the US and France have increased the pressure on the Government to act. The Business minister, Shriti Vadera, said: "This is a very welcome first step ... to educate consumers about unlawful file sharing, which damages our vibrant economy."

 

There remain major sticking points on the implementation of the law, however. These include uncertainty over precisely who will arbitrate disputes – for example when customers claim to have been victims of "wi-fi piggybacking" in which users link up to a paid-for wireless network that is not their own.

 

File-sharing and the law

 

*If you use peer-to-peer applications to copy or distribute copyrighted material such as music, films and software, and do so without paying royalties, you are almost certainly infringing the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Internet service providers bear no liability for illegal file sharing because the content is not hosted on their servers. Although such files may be transmitted across an ISP network, ISPs are "mere conduits" of information, as per the E-Commerce Regulations 2002.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/virgin-warns-illegal-downloaders-stop-or-face-prosecution-842086.html

[Tonsu]

Guess I won't be switching my Broadband to Virgin then :D

[bart]

They always love sending out mailshots to customers..

[busybeeburns]

Great way to lose customers, Virgin :thumbsup:

[bart]

When I used to work for them, they used to send these crazy mail shots put to customers.

 

I remember once they sent out letters about caping the internet service for heavy users...

 

We got 1000´s of calls..

Guess how many customers were affected

 

3 customers...

 

 

I am sure they do it, to justify their call centers being open no more !

[mc_squared]

So what will they do when they have no customers left??:rolleyes:

[Black Rose]

If the internet police can't police serious stuff like Child Porn how can they police sharing of music?

[RICK8]

This is madness,people will just switch ISP's.

[tyson]

Sounds like Virgin is the Comcast of England. In the US Comcast illegally cut bandwidth to users dl'ing torrents. They have no regard for customer service, and rely on middle age/elderly computer illiterate people to subscribe to their services.

[tauiwi]

This wouldnt be a problem if Qtrax got their ASSES INTO GEAR!!!!!

[Bonus_mosher]

I don't get it.

 

if filesharing sites are so illegal, why don't they get shut down?

 

I've used ISOHUNT for years.

and it's still going strong!

[Black Rose]

The problem with the authorises is that file sharing sites ain't illegal, it's people who upload copyrighted stuff is the problem.

 

Besides Virgin is powerless to act as when they see person A is downloading and uploading large amounts of data, they can't see what that data is without falling foul of the ICO

[RICK8]

Yeah good point there,just because they are downloading heaps does not mean that it is illegal.....

[Arazmire]

^agreed

[The Mad Hatter]

Bwahaha..."The age of illegal music downloads could soon be over."

 

That's hilarious.

[blackchickintheback]

I actually reported on this downloading issue for my journalism class. It's actually quite hard to stop people from illegally downloading and record companies are suffering for it.

 

I'm looking foward to this email...

[Black Rose]

*considers posting something along the lines of the biggest downloaders are also the biggest buyers*

[heresjohnny]

Sounds like Virgin is the Comcast of England. In the US Comcast illegally cut bandwidth to users dl'ing torrents. They have no regard for customer service, and rely on middle age/elderly computer illiterate people to subscribe to their services.

 

when did this happen? mine wasn't cut at all.

[RICK8]

Maybe it will be soon..?

[tauiwi]

maybe if CDs were more competitively priced....

 

I'd buy heaps more. I just borrow CDs from the local library who get them in and I import them into itunes. It's legal, and anything I cant get I buy.

 

Saves me money

[Black Rose]

^I do the same^

 

Borrow CDs from the library, rip them into the computer, listen to them to make sure there is no errors and return to the library. It's mainly with albums I'm unsure about

[RICK8]

In my case the cd's are not available in the shops and have to be imported,and i can't be bothered waiting 2 months,so i just download it in 10 minutes..:p

[TheFoxThatBecameGod]

Alot of the albums these days, are well, in my opinion crap. I almost purchased the new Sigur Rós album, but after a few listens I didn't like it much (just my opinion, I am a fan, but more pre-Takk work), so I saved myself some cash.

 

Conversly, I downloaded Weezer's Red Album, didn't like it at first, came back to it, now I seriously love it. I've brought the Green album and Blue since, and I plan on getting the Red Deluxe album soon.