Virgin Agrees To Be IFPI's Copyright Cop

from the but-why? dept

Mon, Mar 31st 2008 11:50am — Mike Masnick

Back in February, there were reports that the entertainment industry had somehow convinced the UK gov't that the "file sharing issue" should be the responsibility of ISPs, rather than the record labels whose obsolete business model caused the problem in the first place. The UK gov't then issued a very public threat that ISPs had better start kicking file sharers off the internet, or it would pass a law requiring them to do so. It appears that rather than push back, Virgin Media has jumped right in and will start kicking those accused of unauthorized sharing off their system using a "three strikes" policy. Of course, some might find this a bit ironic, considering that part of Virgin's entire marketing campaign was around how you could get free stuff via its internet connection. In the meantime, it's still not clear why ISPs should be responsible for propping up a different industry's business model.

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Filed Under: file sharing, isps, uk
Companies: ifpi, virgin media

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2008 @ 12:13pm

Some would view it as not propping up a failed business model (although that may in fact be true) but one of just enforcing the law. Until you change the law, companies will push for the law to actually be enforced.
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Crosbie Fitch (profile), 31 Mar 2008 @ 12:15pm

Virgin self-sacrifice
Think of it as a Virgin self-sacrifice.

All their users will leave them in droves and they can thus demonstrate the folly of this policy.
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Mike (profile), 31 Mar 2008 @ 12:23pm

Re:
Some would view it as not propping up a failed business model (although that may in fact be true) but one of just enforcing the law. Until you change the law, companies will push for the law to actually be enforced.

So enforce the law properly: if it's a civil matter, have the companies sue the folks responsible. If it's a criminal matter, have the police take on the case.

In this case, they're asking a 3rd party to take on the situation.

So, no, it's quite different than just "enforcing the law."
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Matt, 31 Mar 2008 @ 12:31pm

Re: Re:
I agree with you. This is just the music companies complaining to the government about people sharing music/movies online, whether its downloading from a P2P or even going as far as saying that streaming music/movies on sites like yahoo is illegal. The ISPs should fight back. This is just governments and the music/movie industry trying to bully someone else into doing the work for them.

You know that once these people are kicked off virgins internet, that the music/movie companies will want to get their IP address, name, etc so they can sue them for illegal downloading
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Ima Fish, 31 Mar 2008 @ 12:47pm

Re:
"Some would view it as not propping up a failed business model (although that may in fact be true) but one of just enforcing the law. Until you change the law, companies will push for the law to actually be enforced."

What law are you talking about? Did you even read the blurb from above? The blurb said, "The UK gov't then issued a very public threat that ISPs had better start kicking file sharers off the internet, or it would pass a law requiring them to do so."

In other words, there is no law to be enforced!
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Bill, 31 Mar 2008 @ 1:07pm

You're partially right
While I'd agree that it's not the responsibility of an ISP to monitor the actions of their customers, there's no way I can make the judgment leap that the reason people pirated music on P2P networks is because they couldn't buy the songs online legally.
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comboman, 31 Mar 2008 @ 1:08pm

Why is anyone surprised?
Didn't you know Virgin is also a record company?
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mike allen, 31 Mar 2008 @ 1:12pm

It appears
Tiscali tried this last year without telling anyone, (like customers) they had a list of "offenders" supplied by the record companies all 19 of them 4 of those nineteen lost their connection. Hang on didn't the record labels say over 70% of people download unauthorized content does that mean tiscali have only 26 customers!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope Branson's company can afford to lose about 2.5 million customers (glad Im with a different devil.
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mike allen, 31 Mar 2008 @ 1:31pm

Re: You're partially right
Just for starters try to buy a Beatles track on line legally!!!!!!!
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mike allen, 31 Mar 2008 @ 1:34pm

Re: Why is anyone surprised?
In name only Branson had to sell it when he set up virgin radio.
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UK Boi, 31 Mar 2008 @ 2:53pm

Re: Why is anyone surprised?
EX-Music company, they are in the process of getting out Thank god.

NVD, no comcast over here :)
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GT, 31 Mar 2008 @ 6:46pm

Re:
I thought the infringement was uploading, not downloading?

Besides, this is a civil matter, not a legal one.
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PaulT (profile), 1 Apr 2008 @ 12:39am

Re: Re: Re:
I've been predicting that as soon as this sort of thing starts to become widespread, the next major worm attack will be one that automatically downloads MP3s to peoples systems. The ISPs will stop enforcing these rules if it means that 50% of their client base is "infringing" without being aware of it.

I'd also predict that Virgin will see an exodus of its tech-savvy consumer base at some point soon. Not because the people leaving are "pirates" but because they don't appreciate being spied on by service providers. It also depends on how they do the monitoring - protocol? (WoW and Linux users won't be happy at piracy accusations over downloading patches and ISOs) filenames? (what if the songs are legal but the filenames are similar to an illegal file?) bandwidth? (again, gamers won't be happy...). The article suggests that the IFPI will be doing the monitoring to begin with, so if they're as accurate as the RIAA data, it'll fail very quickly as innocent people complain.
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Jez, 1 Apr 2008 @ 2:38pm

Re: Virgin self-sacrifice
Problem is that most of Virgins customers are from the old NTL (Virgin took them over) ... it means they are on Cable. It would be difficult (but not impossible) to simply switch to BT.. Someone would have to install a phone line.

Who knows how to encrypt my .torrents ? ;)
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Leo, 4 Apr 2008 @ 11:15am

Re: .....
File sharing isn't illegal......sharing software, movies, and music is.......so technically they setting themselves up to lose alot of customers.......
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Danny, 14 Dec 2008 @ 9:10pm

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Danny, 14 Dec 2008 @ 9:10pm

Hi, I agree with "mike allen". Yes, he is correct.
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