Dream Pinball
In a move that could also prove problematic for videogames pirates, six major internet service providers are helping music companies crack down on illegal file sharers.
The deal, which has been negotiated by the government, has seen BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse all sign up to impose sanctions on those illegally downloading music. The six ISPs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding put together by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
Warning letters will be sent out to offenders, with the BPI (formerly known as British Phonographic Industry) stating that hundreds of thousands of letters will be sent out in the first year of the scheme. If the letters are ignored, sanctions such as the slowing of their internet connections could be imposed.
The scheme will initially be rolled out over a three month trial period.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI (which acts on behalf of the music industry) said, "All of the major ISPs in the UK now recognise they have a responsibility to deal with illegal file-sharers on their networks."
While games are not specifically being targeted at this time, if the scheme proves successful it's possible that illegal sharing of games could be covered by the scheme.
Without the support of ISPs, games companies have been forced to pursue legal action to clamp down on online piracy. A few weeks ago legal firm, Davenport Lyons, successfully prosecuted four alleged pirates who had illegally downloaded Topware's Dream Pinball 3D, but those in question had failed to appear in court. It has been suggested that pursuing legal action against file sharers is extremely difficult and not particularly effective. The support of ISPs could make clamping down on pirates without the rigmarole of legal action more effective.
SPOnG has contacted a representative of the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association to see whether it will try to get games included in the new scheme, but no comment was available at the time of press.
Source: BBC
The deal, which has been negotiated by the government, has seen BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse all sign up to impose sanctions on those illegally downloading music. The six ISPs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding put together by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
Warning letters will be sent out to offenders, with the BPI (formerly known as British Phonographic Industry) stating that hundreds of thousands of letters will be sent out in the first year of the scheme. If the letters are ignored, sanctions such as the slowing of their internet connections could be imposed.
The scheme will initially be rolled out over a three month trial period.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI (which acts on behalf of the music industry) said, "All of the major ISPs in the UK now recognise they have a responsibility to deal with illegal file-sharers on their networks."
While games are not specifically being targeted at this time, if the scheme proves successful it's possible that illegal sharing of games could be covered by the scheme.
Without the support of ISPs, games companies have been forced to pursue legal action to clamp down on online piracy. A few weeks ago legal firm, Davenport Lyons, successfully prosecuted four alleged pirates who had illegally downloaded Topware's Dream Pinball 3D, but those in question had failed to appear in court. It has been suggested that pursuing legal action against file sharers is extremely difficult and not particularly effective. The support of ISPs could make clamping down on pirates without the rigmarole of legal action more effective.
SPOnG has contacted a representative of the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association to see whether it will try to get games included in the new scheme, but no comment was available at the time of press.
Source: BBC
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Comments
Kyata 25 Jul 2008 10:20
1/3
If they offered us a big enough catalogue of DRM free music...i'm sure more people would be buying their onlien music.I use itunes and play.com to buy my music but they both have their disspointing times. Itunes have a huge collection of songs but more than 2 thirds of them can only be playe don my ipod...so i can't play these on my phone and other devices which forces to download some songs if i cannot find them on play.com
Law 25 Jul 2008 11:06
2/3
"The support of ISPs could make clamping down on pirates without the rigmarole of legal action more effective."
In other words - trial without a jury. ISP's are going to take the word of the BPI and any other business who claims to see an IP address from the ISP's network on a filesharing network. IP's are not ID cards - they can be forged easily, and people do spoof IP addresses on these networks. Also - the majority of IP addresses people have are dynamic - so the ISP and the respective companies will have those issues too. I've seen it too many times that some monkey working for these companies doesn't pay attention - and either my bank is charged twice, payments isn't processed, or they don't send out something I've asked for. If that happens internal to a single company - I will hate the see the result of this.
Hopefully somebody wrongly fingered by these guys will sue - and we will see government legislation - at least that way there will be some sort of overseeing body put in place to half protect us....
In other words - trial without a jury. ISP's are going to take the word of the BPI and any other business who claims to see an IP address from the ISP's network on a filesharing network. IP's are not ID cards - they can be forged easily, and people do spoof IP addresses on these networks. Also - the majority of IP addresses people have are dynamic - so the ISP and the respective companies will have those issues too. I've seen it too many times that some monkey working for these companies doesn't pay attention - and either my bank is charged twice, payments isn't processed, or they don't send out something I've asked for. If that happens internal to a single company - I will hate the see the result of this.
Hopefully somebody wrongly fingered by these guys will sue - and we will see government legislation - at least that way there will be some sort of overseeing body put in place to half protect us....
Joji 28 Jul 2008 21:59
3/3
A very interesting development. Truth is everyone is downloading music etc, as this is the way they want to consume media. Unfortunately those in music and film have failed miserably to progress to change with tech.
An interesting piece of info, is that not all music online for free is a percieved lost sale. A lot of music online is free, while the likes of online radio delivers much more global variety than any Top 40 music chart, without an actually sale (something I used being bored of some mainstream music). I still think that if paid music online at reasonable prices with more variety, less draconian DRM, more people would buy it.
Hate to say it, but the revenge of the nerds really has them worried. Going through ISPs is desperate at best, especially when ISPs rely on customers using their service. What happens if BT loose millions of customers, who are either kicked or leave? The concept of one business putting its head on the block for another is crazy, so i think ISPs will compromise. How we'll soon find out.
An interesting piece of info, is that not all music online for free is a percieved lost sale. A lot of music online is free, while the likes of online radio delivers much more global variety than any Top 40 music chart, without an actually sale (something I used being bored of some mainstream music). I still think that if paid music online at reasonable prices with more variety, less draconian DRM, more people would buy it.
Hate to say it, but the revenge of the nerds really has them worried. Going through ISPs is desperate at best, especially when ISPs rely on customers using their service. What happens if BT loose millions of customers, who are either kicked or leave? The concept of one business putting its head on the block for another is crazy, so i think ISPs will compromise. How we'll soon find out.