UK Discards Three Strikes Policy, Seeks for Technical P2P Control

In a yesterday P2POn post we were telling you about RIAA’s loss of credibility with respect to the agreements it’s been claiming to have reached with several major ISPs. As record industry itself is starting to realize, the success of the new practice from the trade group is more smoke than fire since persuading ISPs to collaborate and turn in their subscribers suspected of illegal file sharing thus jeopardizing their revenue, is a damn hard task.

Lately, the entertainment industry has been focusing in several countries on lobbying for legislation that would force the ISPs to assume the Internet cop role. Although, due to president Sarkozy’s pressure, in France this plan seems to have worked, a similar plan in the UK has been (fortunately) less fortunate. However, the British government has all but discarded a "graduated response" strategy, preferring to declare that they are considering the use of (yet) undefined "technical solutions" meant to discourage P2P file sharers. This could be worse than it sounds, especially if it involves ISPs with false advertising of connection and other malicious practices.