Parliament to ISPs: ban illegal downloaders
Category: PC, Posted: 02/15/2008 at 10:08AM CST by Andy Groen, Content Contributor
The BBC is reporting that in the UK, talks are in place attempting to force Internet Service Providers to ban users from the internet if they illegally download files.
Representatives of Parliament note that the plan is still in the very early stages and has yet to be placed before legislative committees. The Internet Service Providers Association was quick to sound off on the proposal.
"ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope," commented representatives of the organization.
This threat may sound menacing, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it, my little game, music and movie pirates. File swapping was going on long before the government knew about it, in ways they couldn't understand. File swapping persisted for more than a decade after they became aware of it, too. They tried to crack down on it years ago...but the pirates pirated on.
So long as the people committing the "crimes" are more technologically saavy, and generally more intelligent in the area, legislators will never be able to keep up.
So go on, download that latest slightly humorous Hugh Grant romantic comedy. If I know our UK readers, there isn't anything that can come between them and the latest Hugh Grant flick.
I just feel so betrayed. All this time I thought George Clinton was on our side.
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Haha, they really have no idea.
while they are at it,why not ask road maintenance crews to take away the drivers license of everyone who speeds. that makes about as much sense.
"the plan is still in the very early stages and has yet to be placed before legislative committees"
In other words it hasn't really been debated or researched at all and simply been suggested to get a reaction and gut opinion. Secondly the move came from the BPI, I know this as I saw them trumpeting it all over BBC News three days ago. Thirdly, this isn't likely to get anywhere near being passed for another 18 months, they have to research and debate and go through scrutiny reviews.
What are they gonna try to do next? Close 4chan?
It's unfortunate that most legislatures have absolutely no idea. The problem isn't having ISPs track everyone's use of the internet. ISPs are already trying to throttle BitTorrent traffic, at least here in the States, and fileshare programs are more dangerous than they're worth, what with all the viruses out there. What governments need to do, instead of threatening ISPs, is try to work WITH them to see what a good solution would be. And that's really what this whole thing boils down to: a lack of dialogue between government and ISPs.