UK ISPs team up to deal with P2P pirates
AFTER YEARS OF SAYING they are not responsible for content that crosses their servers, the UK's six biggest Internet service providers have formally agreed to work with the government and music to growl at P2P pirates.
BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse signed up to a government-negotiated plan and will send letters to downloaders warning them their activity is being watched.
The service providers will develop legal file-sharing services as an alternative to piracy.
The plan does not require service providers to cut off customers who share files illegally, consumer rights groups are worried the government may demand this in the future.
The IFTI, the international recording industry trade body, said the agreement is a step in the right direction.
However getting ISPs to treat customers like terrorists with government backing is not enough according to IFTI chairman and CEO John Kennedy.
He said that the government needs to do something more concrete that produces measurable results.
Nothing short of armed police breaking into P2P pirates' houses and riddling them full of bullets will satisfy the IFTI. µ
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i propose that they are only cracking down on this because the ISP's are running out of bandwidth on a national scale and after failing to get the BBC (BBCiPlayer) to pay for upgrading the infrastructure, they are finding somone else to blame eg illeagal downloaders <sarchasm> who as we all know use bittorrent and download constantly, crippiling the internet for everyone else whilst swindling the music industry out of billions </sarchasm>
Teenage angst has paid off well
Now I'm bored and old
Self-appointed judges judge
More than they have sold

If she floats than she is not
A witch like we had thought
A down payment on another
One at Salem's lot
This seem far to dodgy, it essentially gives powers to cut someone off from the internet who appears to be using to much bandwidth.

I think this is just an extension of the 'fair use policy'..

You sign up with an ISP, use to much bandwidth and stretch the network. They claim you have downloaded illegal material, you get banned and have to foot the remaining months of your ISP contract for no service. 

Simple solution, tick the encryption option on azureus, thus if you receive a letter you know its @£$%£^£$%...
The MAFIAA also signed the deal. They have no reason to hide anymore.
http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/press/news_content_file_1152.shtml

It is only a matter of time until the remaining countries in the EU follow, while the pussies in the European Parliament do not realize what is happening to the Internet in the EU, in the name of fighting "piracy" (petty theft).

We need a law which separates ISPs from ALL other businesses.
What happens if you use voip telephone?

Aren't they breaking the law by monitoring without a warrant?
Can anyone seriously picture this? - 

.. I'm just going to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL on the keyboard and -- HE'S GOT A WEAPON - TAKE HIM DOWN..

hehehe.
this wouldn't be so bad if they where really only after pirates... but most likely any encrypted/unclassifiable p2p traffic will be considered piracy. 

I just hope most people have viable option to switch to an ISP that didn't sign up for the user harassments plan and of course that they will take advantage of it. Maybe if they loose 50% of their user base they won't be so quick to abuse them.

All surtomers are watched whithout court warrant??? ISP have same privacy rules as jails for prisoners!!
International Federation of the Pr0nographic Industry
Land-O'Lakes! It's alright to see a little biddy! Unlicenced hard core file-shearers could have technical measures exposed, and we may not care to see the undertones getting their own backs at full whacks. The act you've known for all these years; the one and only Billy Shears; is about to send you all a post, 'cause he thinks you're franking all the most. 'One sows and another reaps', but a snitch in time staves 9. No mind. A piece of rubbish in the daily mail. Everybody's got somewhere to hide except me and some money. I'd buy two plus shrooms, had I a mine to too. Much tapping the claret by any other hue, is still a must impressive rosé. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of some! Wine not? For idioms-sake, I'm only happy when it rains a torrent. Wankers! The world's your oyster, but don't carry on kraken that black pearl jam_ the jigs be up, and wind's let loose. "Too Many Notes — Not Enough Rests." amen. Illicit service is held on the pyramidian of Maya, so cut the Quiché.
Ah naturally it's the biggest 6 with the worst customer support. In the name of all that is holy, I hope they lose many customers after this to the smaller and more reliable providers.
What amazes me is the continual special treatment the music and film industry keeps trying to get.

Why should they get special treatment over piracy enforcement? what makes them such poor victims, that they have to try and bully all other companies into helping them with their problem. 

Make no mistake music/film piracy is born from the ludicrously high profiteering prices they have charged in the past. Piracy has greatly benefited consumers by keeping a lid on prices.

The music industry is seeing a decline in revenue, and currently they have a big impact still while they cling onto to diminishing cash reserves. As they "hopefully" run out of money they will stop bothering and harassing the general populous and become less influential.

By the same token do you see county councils being forced to send out letters to everyone who owns a tape recorder in case they might be recording music? Because thats how obscene this is.

Its a bit like trying arrest everyone with a van because it could be used to do "smash and grab" raid.

Roll on encryption...

The ONLY solution is to sell music at a sensible price.

If your ISP cuts you off for this, its simple get a proper provider rather than one in the lap of the RIAA mafia.
The cease and desist letters they often send out from across the pond are completely unenforceable.

If you use Peerguardian you don't get these problems...

Is O2 broadband taking part in this too ? haven't seen it mentioned anywhere...
ISP can monitor anonymously and then pay a percentage of it's income to the business who is getting screwed.

Why not do that? A bit like radio stations and their contributions.

Then we get a true downloaders chart, and anyone who does make something popular gets rich. This will help to drive a new group of web entrepreneurs as well as pay the "business" the true amount.
BBC iplayer users peer to peer techology, which is the same traffic type as the likes of the file sharing programs pirates could potentially use. 

So how does this work now ?? How can they tell the difference?? Innocent until proven guilty??

People could be sharing their own music/videos that has no copyright on them. Or classical??

Well anyone that gets a letter that is unjustified, I hope they vote with their feet and switch ISP's!!

The industry seems to like kicking its customers. Sounds like anther desperate move from an industry which has falling sales to me. Keep on putting the extra nails in that coffin.
Its not just the encryption on Azureus - a while back I used to use tunneling to get by company firewalls and proxies. If you've got an open port (80 or 8080 will do) then you can get anything you want.
Now if I was call all my (imaginary) videos and mp3's .html files then the ISP's would have to try and analyse everything - or start to block sites. Eventually you would have to decide on your ISP by which sites they will allow you to see.
Now that would be fun - though I have a feeling thats what the big mdeia companies want - a non open internet.
If they know what is being downloaded and can send leters out then why not create a P2P tax on ISP's for royalites and anyone who doesnt pay it but still uses the net to download illegal files can be cut off or fined, it could even be a relatively small amount that wouldn't really affect anyone.

Or maybe a tax on recordable media.

surely a millions of people paying an extra 50p to a pound a week or somthing will make the greedy bastards more money in the long run and all those artists that "suffer" with their huge houses and 20 cars can be happy with themselves that the paycheck is coming (A real artist would love the fact their work is being seen, money is a secondary reward.)

I love the excuse they are losing money when many many people would never have bought/watched or listened to the music or movies in the first place and also you will find many will actually buy the retail version to have that official and real item that would never have been reached before the advent of the internet.