Broadband News & Mobile Broadband News

Suspected illegal fileshares could be faced with a court order before having their broadband disconnected, according to comments made by the UK’s Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw.

There has been plenty of opposition towards the government’s plan to give more power to the music and entertainment industry which would force ISP’s to cut off the broadband connection of suspected illegal fire sharers without prior warning.

Therefore, Mr Bradshaw’s suggestion that a court order should first be used to prove a users guilt before they are disconnected is perceived to be good news.

Mr Bradshaw said, “It wouldn’t just happen on the basis of accusation. First there would need to be a court order for any of the technical measures.”

Record labels are also in agreement that warning letters should be followed up to eliminate persistent file sharing. They state that “any technical measures deemed necessary and appropriate by the Secretary of State” would be welcome to try to stop illegal downloads.

When speaking about the government’s retreat from the technical clampdown on persistent file sharers, James Alexander the Deloitte Media Partner, said it was definitely no surprise.

He said, “Perhaps this reflects that it was only intended as a shot across the bows by the government to deter people who think illegal downloading is an acceptable activity, as opposed to determined and technically adept criminals.”

Ultimately the government will determine what measures to enforce on November 18th in the Digital Economy Bill. No doubt up until that point there will be various other suggestions added as to what would be the best way to stop illegal piracy.

Karoo, the internet service provider in Hull has introduced a new policy to combat illegal broadband file sharers on its network.

The new ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy comes after it was widely reported that the company was disconnecting users suspected of piracy without any prior warning.

Such action provoked anger from the residents of Hull where Karoo is the only ISP with a near monopoly position and also the Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus.

According to reports, in order for a user to get re-connected, they were required to sign a document which admitted their guilt and also confirmed that they would not repeat the offence again.

Commenting on the new policy, the Director of Consumer and Publishing Services at Karoo, Nick Thompson said, “It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and Internet users. So, we have changed our policy to move in more line with the industry standard approach, whilst still taking the issues of copyright infringement and illegal internet activity seriously. Going forward, we will provide customers with three written notifications before their service is temporarily suspended”.

Internet piracy is a big problem within the UK and one the government has tried to cover in the recent Digital Britain Report.

Measures including bandwidth capping and site blocking, rather than actual disconnection were put forward as possible ways to help address the problem.

According to a new survey conducted by leading digital music strategy company, Music Ally, and research specialists, The Leading Question, illegal broadband file sharing has decreased considerably since 2007.

The 1,000 strong UK music fan survey revealed that regular illegal file sharing had decreased to 17% in January 2009 from 22% in December 2007.

It is the younger music fans, aged 14-18, who have mainly stopped regularly downloading illegal files, with figures dropping dramatically from 42% to 26%.

Music video streaming is said to be the main reason for this with websites such as Spotify and YouTube allowing users to watch streaming music for free in return for watching or listening to a few advertisements.

Despite the drop in regular illegal file sharing, the number of users who have ever downloaded illegal files has increased. In December 2007, the figure stood at 28% but in January 2009 it went up to 31%.

Paul Brindley, the CEO of Music Ally said, “File sharing is a moving target, so industry and Government policies need to recognise this. It’s already being somewhat displaced by other means of accessing music for free. Some are licensed and some involve a bit of both”.

Brindley continued, “Kids find services like YouTube much more convenient for checking out new music than file sharing. But even YouTube can become a source of piracy with some kids ripping YouTube videos and turning them into free MP3 downloads”.

A recent survey conducted by the Media law group, Wiggin, has found that illegal file sharers (pirates) are not deterred by warning letters from their broadband internet service provider (ISP).

Out of the 1,500 broadband customers surveyed, no more than 33% would stop pirating content if they received a warning letter.

The results come just before the Digital Britain report is officially published. Within the report it is expected that Lord Carter will make it a requirement for ISP’s to send warning letters to persistent illegal file sharers in the hope that it will deter them.

As of yet there are no real plans as to what can be done if a user ignores the warning. It is thought that there will be some kind of service restriction placed upon them, but how exactly this will work is not yet certain.

The CEO of TalkTalk, Charles Dunstone, has stated recently, “If you try speed humps or disconnections for peer to peer, people will simply either disguise their traffic or share the content another way. It is a game of Tom and Jerry and you will never catch the mouse. The mouse always wins in this battle and we need to be careful that politicians do not get talked into putting legislation in place that, in the end, ends up looking stupid.”

One thing is for sure, the results of the Wiggin survey show that warning letters from broadband providers will mainly be ineffective. It seems that some kind of restriction on broadband supply could be the only way to deter users in the short term.

According to reports, the UK’s broadband internet service providers (ISP’s) will not be forced to cut off illegal file sharers as part of the final Digital Britain Report.

There has been ongoing talks into what can be done to stop persistent illegal file sharers and one option was to force broadband providers to shut down the users accounts.

Instead, there are going to be certain measures introduced in order to limit and restrict illegal file sharing. Speaking to BBC News Online, a spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Support said, “The Digital Britain Report coming out soon will build on last year’s Memorandum of understanding between content holders and ISPs to tackle illegal file sharing”.

“It is likely to include an obligation on ISPs to send out letters to people who are infringing copyright.”

The spokesperson also hinted that Ofcom would have new powers to impose ‘technical solutions’ to help stop persistent illegal file sharers.

The actual measures are set to be announced as part of the Digital Britain report due to be published on the 16th June.