This news comes only a couple days after the UK Film Council published figures on the size of the UK’s Video on Demand market (see chapter 12 of the 2008 Yearbook). Despite there being 13 million UK households (53% of the total) with a broadband connection in 2007, ‘the online VoD market remained small with estimated revenues of around £700,000.’

Industry research estimates there were 127 million digitally-pirated movies in 2007, which cannibalised the official market to a value of £53 million. The time is ripe for some concerted action, whether that involves carrot (attractive legal downloading alternatives) or stick.

Whatever the exagerated claims are then what the music and film industris have not realized is that if they get paid for each download then the money recovered will only be a fraction of the ‘lost’ figures.

People will try a new artist if it is free, if is not free then they wont bother

The film and music industry are facing their first real challege of recent times and it is sad to see them hiding behind regulation when times get tough. If Cd, dvds and digital sales were not so expensive then people would purchase more legally and the problem wouldnt be as bad. I think fans are fed up with paying over the odds so that fat cats executives and stars can get massive bonuses. The real talented people in these industries are getting screwed out of every penny the multinationals can get away with and soon as these companies loose a bit of money they throw a hissy fit!

Would it really be a huge loss if some of the giants of the industry collapsed? They would be replaced with inovating independants bringing new talent through. The industry is going through a difficult changes at the moment which scares people but change is a good thing!

I can understand why the entertainment companies are so upset but they need to stop policing and relax a little. Stop adding things like dvd regions and copy-protection to dvds! If I can’t play it on my laptop, you’re forcing me to find alternative [illegal] sources!
I’m part of ‘today’s generation’ and contrary to popular belief, we still believe in paying. A lot of us hear about a new artist or film and will download tracks or movies before deciding whether or not we want to buy the album, dvd or go to see the movie (if prices are reasonable.) Downloaded files are often of really poor quality, so it’s worth buying legal copies.
Just please make sure they work without limits.

If the music companies and film companies gave “value for money”, piracy would not be such a huge issue.
A pure downloaded album (from ITunes for example) is not worth more than a couple of pounds (same goes for downloaded films) and, if the prices were in line with this, piracy would practically disappear from the mainstream. There will always be hard core pirates but the average user is willing to pay what a product is worth but, understandably, not willing to get ripped off. A downloaded album should not cost £8-10 when you consider that the records no longer contain liner art work or notes nor does the user get a physical CD. The record companies are also no longer shouldering the expense of large A&R departments or taking risks. New artists are being found on MySpace for free. The material is already recorded and market tested before big business gets involved. It is ether that is being sold and should be priced as such or more substantial products should be given to those who legitimately buy them.
Outrageous pricing is going to completely change the future of music. Without legitimate sales, where are the new bands going to make the money necessary to survive? My favourite website, http://www.iacmusic.com, is solely for new unsigned acts and every penny that is charged for a download goes directly to the artist. The result, the artist sets the price (default is 50 cents US per song) and the market determines it’s success.

The system they’re suggesting is completely unworkable.

To actually find out what people are downloading would require the ISPs to intercept personal data, which some may claim is fine if it stops illegal copied files being downloaded, but it still criminalises people who do no such thing who it turn end up losing their privacy online.

Tracking those who download would also be a complete failure, as many heavy downloaders often employ modem cloning or have dynamic IPs. All well and good giving the whole ‘They should be banned, they should be charged’. So what happens when your IP is stolen (a very simple task) and YOU get disconnected or charged for someone else’s actions?

It’s a meaningless gesture. The BPI should be looking into turning people away from downloading copied files towards more favourable download services, not forcing them to buy their over priced over produced rubbish for 10 times its worth.

The BPI’s suggestion is completely without technical bases, and unworkable, as serious downloaders and sharers will merely use the simple ‘proxy’ server route to anonymously d/l or u/l their shared files.

Moreover, ironically, BT ( my ISP) automatically assigns a different IP addy every time I log on… dynamic IP assignment, as this is cheaper that assigning a fixed IP address. This means you have a different IP addy every time you log on. Consequently, the thousands of snoops who would presumably be hired to check every one of the tens of thousands of Pirate Bay/Limewire bitorrents would be wasting their time.

The mere suggestion that downloaders of free shared stuff can be traced by logging their IP address is ludicrous, or every paedophile online would be behind bars by now. A complete smokescreen, and technically unworkable.

It might scare a few, but those with basic knowledge of the net are just laughing.

Perhaps rather than trying to make multi-millionaire popstars/film actors even more preposterously rich, the government should try to focus on tracing paedophiles online with this unworkable & technically-unfeasible approach.

I think the ISp’s should stabd up for themselves and give the Government the 2 fingers sign because if the Governemtn doesn’t care about child porn and such materials being downloaded why make a big deal out of music downloads, does the Governemnt have a take in the profits!!!! of course , its all about money!!!!!

I can’t wait for one of those letters to turn up on someone’s door, only for them to turn around and ask exactly how the ISPs have found out such specific information without breaching privacy agreements….

I’ve spoken to numerous people worried about their children’s, or in many cases own, online behaviour. I simply tell them there is no way this system will work and is a case of scare mongering which has clearly affected them.

Its all media hype anyway. Nothing in the news that hasn’t already been completely used to death so they jump on the first sign of criminalising a huge section of the UK, as well as the world.

It’ll blow over soon, just like ACTA.

AS THEY SAY HERE , IT ISNT THE SIZE OF THE SAUSAGE THAT COUNTS …..MUSIC PIRACY WILL NEVER STOP

The ISP’s will never stop illegal downloading it’s impossible. If they come up with some software to stop peer to peer file sharing then I’m sure some wizz kid computer geek will come up with something to circumvent it. Remember when Napstar was closed, it gave birth to the rise of bit torrents. I’m afraid this genie will not go back into the bottle. Like other posters have said, ISP’s should worry more about child porn instead of bowing to the complaining and whinning of the powerful BPI. How can you hope to criminalise 6.5 million Brits. Sorry, no way it aint going to happen.

The music companies should spend their money and efforts on innovatiion in marketing their product and not chasing kids for downloads. The companies are behind the times and may be overshadowed by the next technological revoulution.

Oh yeah…here is the site where this pirate is running ammuck. http://starsof.com/fans/

go inside now…

Its great To read this quality of information…