Virgin Media Says It’s Not Involved in Any Anti-File Sharing Agreement

Contrary to some current reports Virgin Media said that it has not finalized any arrangement with the UK recording industry to initiate a pilot scheme that would deter illegal file sharing.

The ISP admitted having talked about the notorious 'three strikes and you’re out' procedure with the music industry trade association, the British Phonographic Industry or BPI.

This scheme basically means that people who downloaded copyrighted music from file-sharing sites on regular basis would receive two warnings from their ISP prior to getting permanently disconnected from their broadband service altogether.

Yet, Virgin Media thought this measure to be exceedingly harsh, generating delicate privacy and legal concerns and in addition the company believed it would also a greater cost for ISPs.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media declared that: “There is no pilot in place. There are no details to confirm as we haven’t come to any sort of agreement with the BPI. Further on the declaration says that “The BPI wants the Government and ISPs to adopt the three-strikes system, we don’t want to go down to that level as it raises questions about privacy and funding.”

This system appeared as a possible solution at the beginning of the year when the Government warned ISPs to come up with efficient measures to restrain illegal downloads otherwise be themselves liable to legal sanctions.

Although back then Andy Burnham, the culture secretary said that there was no three-strikes policy taken into consideration, a week ago the Daily Telegraph said that Virgin and the BPI had joined forces and were trying to come up with a pilot scheme whose purpose was to cut off from the internet service customers found to be downloading music illegally.

According to ComputerActive when the BPI was enquired about the report it replied it was not in the position to talk about individual ISP debates and disclose information but however, such pilot has not been confirmed although BPI is currently engaged in a dialogue with Virgin.