Carphone says No! to BPI scheme
p2pnet news view | Music:- It looked as though it was a done deal between Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and Britain’s largest ISPs.
” ‘BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have all signed up for a deal negotiated by the government to spam hundreds of thousands of people on behalf of the Big 4,’ p2pnet posted on Thursday, quoting the BBC, and going on:
” ‘Net users, ’suspected of illegally sharing music’ will get letters and some file-sharers, ‘could see their broadband connections slowed,’ says the story.
“The ‘plan’ commits the firms to working towards a ’significant reduction’ in the ‘illegal sharing of music,’ says the BBC.
“Yesterday, Britain’s six leading ISPs, the British Phonographic Institute and the Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which they pledged to ’significantly reduce illegal file sharing’.”
But Carphone Warehouse, “insists it’s prepared to walk away from the table if draconian measures are introduced,” says PC Pro, quoting a spokesman as stating unequivocally:
“Our priority is always to protect our customer. We will look at any sensible suggestion…. We haven’t got any plans to adopt any of those other measures at the moment.”
One of the threats was to institute a practise that’s already causing huge consumer discontent in north America —- ‘bandwidth management,’ aka ‘ traffic throttling’.
However, “there’s still a massive divide between ISPs and the BPI over how to punish repeat offenders, with the Carphone Warehouse telling PC Pro it would walk out on any deal which saw its customers’ broadband connections cut off,” it says, going on to quote a Carphone spokesman as declaring »»»
We will not disconnect or threaten to disconnect our customers. We will not divulge details of our customers to people like the BPI unless we get a specific court order to do so.’
What we have agreed to do is to write to our customers and advise them there’s been an alleged infringement. We’re very clear that we don’t know if that’s the case or not, we’ve just been told there has been and we want to advise them of that.
We certainly won’t pass over their details and we certainly won’t disconnect them.
But, PC Pro goes on, the attitude is, “almost the polar opposite of the BPI’s” whose spokesman stated, “All of the ISPs have agreed to engage with us in terms of tackling this issue for people who won’t respond to the letter.
“Most people don’t want their account used unlawfully and illegally, but clearly there are people that are well aware of what they’re doing and there needs to be a framework to tackle those people who won’t respond to a softly-softly approach.”
What about the other five?
Stay tuned.
.
.Stumble It!
done deal – Major UK ISPs turn copyright cops, July 24, 2008
BBC -Net firms in music pirates deal, July 24, 2008
PC Pro – ISP threatens to walk out of illegal file-sharing pact, July 25, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:05 am
If I get a letter from them, they can kiss my account goodbye. I will not stand to have unsubstantiated accusations directed at me. They are foolish to comply with the BPI and risk infuriating their customers.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Does the carphone warehouse really believe that the BPI will stop at sending out warning letters? This is a small step toward total control for the BPI and the ISPs with a vested interest in prioritizing their own content by eliminating all vestiges of competition (yes, I’m talking about you virgin media).
July 25th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’m confused. Wasn’t there just an announcement a week or two ago that the UK government was going to impose a mandatory licensing scheme on the ISP’s and media cartel?
July 27th, 2008 at 3:10 am
I’m confused too. ISPs here encourage music and movie downloading as a way to use their bandwidth, when you sign up.