Green Party Attacks Deal between ISPs and Record Industry

The agreement between six UK Internet service providers and the record industry that seeks to crack down on illegal file sharing has been openly criticized by the Green Party.

It seems that as many have hoped, some UK politicians are becoming conscious of the consequences of allowing ISPs to target suspected file-sharers, considering that the evidence is provided by the entertainment industry rather than an independent law enforcement personnel.

In Green party’s view, these "draconian measures" may affect the Internet access for vulnerable people.

Rights owners will give out IP addresses to the ISPs, who will match them with users and send warnings to them.

An accord will be reached between ISPs and the government which will contain the code of practice regarding the way the repeat offenders are to be dealt with. Methods will include blocking content to some costumers or limiting the download speed of their internet connection.

Here’s what Tom Chance, the party's Intellectual Property Spokesperson had to say on the matter:

Net-users everywhere should be worried by today's Memorandum of Understanding between the BPI and the six largest ISPs in the UK. Faults exist at every level. The first stage gives the BPI the right to track file-sharers, and pass their details onto ISPs. That's an attack on civil liberties in itself - but the true folly of the scheme rests in what those ISPs can do next.

Their new powers run in two halves. Initially, they merely send warning letters to suspected file-sharers. If these fail to deter them, the ISPs threaten to to slow or cut off their internet connections. This is a hugely disproportionate response.

It wouldn't matter who had done the sharing. It wouldn't matter if it was someone else in the building. It wouldn't matter if your machine had been assaulted by malware and used without your knowledge.

The ISPs will target suspects, which means many people on shared internet connections will be cut off under these rules. These rules risk cutting many vulnerable people off from their livelihoods and their means for engaging as a citizen.

Geoff Taylor from the BPI says,'there is not an acceptable level of file-sharing. Musicians need to be paid like everyone else,' and Feargal Sharkey, spokesperson for British Music Rights, claims, 'no business can survive after losing as much revenue as the music industry has.' But the fact is that this loss of revenue results from the music industry's failure to move with the times.

Draconian measures won't stem that loss. The speed and ease of file-transfer makes it an increasingly attractive option compared to conventional shopping. It's the difference between pressing a button and going out to get the bus to the nearest music shop. If the music industry ever hopes to compete with that convenience, it needs to develop both legal and fair means of sharing files.

Record companies typically want to develop software along the lines of iTunes; a monopoly where individuals sign up and pay to legally share music. That's clearly unsatisfactory. The money collected won't find its way to musicians - the companies' typical charge against file-sharing.

The advent of mass social networking allows developing artists to promote themselves without immediate recourse to studios' PR teams, so whatever deal is produced should help sites that support independent artists, such as Magnatune, not just multinationals that distribute record industry fare.

The internet offers consumers and artists greater freedom from the strictures of corporate power. This memo attempts to stop that; its assault on file-sharing attacks consumers, while its proposals on legal filesharing seek simply to preserve the record industry's cut of musician's profits. Along the way, it makes a flagrant challenge to the liberty of internet users, which must be opposed.

Thank God there’s still a political entity that can admit to the unfairness and disastrous implication this move from the entertainment industry would have. The fact is even more outrageous if you come to think that the losses the entertainment industry so desperately cries over are due to its own inadaptability and refuse to keep up the pace with the current times.

The UK's six largest ISPs that closed the deal with the industry are: BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB, and Carphone Warehouse.