DeathKnell
Member
The music industry’s decade-long campaign to eradicate online piracy and copyright infringement has been a hit-or-miss affair at best. Now, as part of a new arrangement in Britain between Virgin Media and Universal — an alliance between an Internet service provider and a music label — the antipiracy effort takes a new twist.
For consumers, the new service itself, to be introduced by the end of this year in Britain, is a deal-maker: for a monthly fee (expected to start at about $15) subscribers will be able to download unlimited numbers of MP3 tracks and albums, free of digital rights management (DRM) protection, and keep the music in their digital vaults, even if their subscriptions expire.
There’s a caveat, though: if Virgin finds the tracks ending up on illegal file-sharing sites, it says it will temporarily suspend the customer’s broadband connection if he or she repeatedly ignores warnings about transferring the files. The warnings, followed by action, is what is known in these circles as a “graduated response.”
It’s a concept that goes further toward punishment than any I’ve yet seen. Using ISP services as “enforcers” to thwart content piracy is a touchy matter, legally and morally. Recent reports say that both the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have been negotiating with some ISPs about putting graduated response policies into play.
Tuesday, a day after the Universal/Virgin deal was announced, the BBC reported that the British government issued its “Digital Britain” report, which says that the government will give greater powers to ISPs to identify illegal downloaders and pursue a “write and sue” approach for the worst offenders.
For consumers, the new service itself, to be introduced by the end of this year in Britain, is a deal-maker: for a monthly fee (expected to start at about $15) subscribers will be able to download unlimited numbers of MP3 tracks and albums, free of digital rights management (DRM) protection, and keep the music in their digital vaults, even if their subscriptions expire.
There’s a caveat, though: if Virgin finds the tracks ending up on illegal file-sharing sites, it says it will temporarily suspend the customer’s broadband connection if he or she repeatedly ignores warnings about transferring the files. The warnings, followed by action, is what is known in these circles as a “graduated response.”
It’s a concept that goes further toward punishment than any I’ve yet seen. Using ISP services as “enforcers” to thwart content piracy is a touchy matter, legally and morally. Recent reports say that both the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have been negotiating with some ISPs about putting graduated response policies into play.
Tuesday, a day after the Universal/Virgin deal was announced, the BBC reported that the British government issued its “Digital Britain” report, which says that the government will give greater powers to ISPs to identify illegal downloaders and pursue a “write and sue” approach for the worst offenders.