ISPs will begin sending alert mesages to illegal downloaders starting in 2015

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

After four years of negotiations, the major UK internet providers have struck a deal with the entertainment industry on what will be done regarding internet piracy. Fortunately, for illegal downloaders that is, it will be less than a light slap on the wrist. According to a document seen by the BBC, BT, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk have now announced that they will begin sending out educational letters to those caught downloading television shows, music and movies illegally.

The entertainment industry lobby groups wanted much harsher repercussions to be set in place including access to a database of those who download illegal torrents on a regular basis, which would essentially allow for the possibility of legal action against them. The groups also wanted the "alerts" or warning letters to focus on possible punishment for illegal downloading, but as it turns out, they will be more educational in manner than anything and will include the promotion of legal download services.

As per the negotiations, entertainment industry groups will monitor torrent sites for illegal files and then record the IP addresses of those who download them. The participating ISPs will then fire off educational alert messages to offenders. Providers will send out monthly reports on alert message numbers to rights holders, but will not be revealing the identity of the downloaders in question.

Reports say the entertainment groups will fork over £750,000 (or 75% of the system set-up cost) to each ISP for their trouble, and an additional £75,000 (or 75% of the total set-up cost) a year in administration fees.

While it isn't difficult to find reports of individuals already receiving letters of this nature in the past, this particular program is set to begin in 2015 and run for 3 years.

Image via Shutterstock.

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Makes sense to me. In some cases it is difficult to determine if the download is a legit copy - even from YouTube and Achive.org.
 
Legal download services does that mean they will also tell you to move to the US to watch your favourite TV show?

Plus why punish the downloader and not the uploader?... oh wait that would mean punishing google, yahoo.. Which is extremely forbidden in the age of the unintelligent
 
Century Link sent me a letter, just because the ISP only has to send you a letter does not mean the disney legal team cannot prosecute you. You can get like a 40k+ fine and prison time. I found some free solutions to keep them off your back, cyberghost and peerblock combined seems to do the trick. But I do not pirate it is illegal.

Cyber ghost is the best free vpn I could find.
 
In the case of legal streaming I agree with the sentiment that artists are not getting a large enough cut of the cash.
 
I am from the UK, and I download a lot from Pirate Bay. How will they know that I did an illegal download?

I always use a proxy IP, Located in the USA, in fact.:D
 
Plus why punish the downloader and not the uploader?
Because it is not illegal to upload. However, it is illegal to distribute without the correct licence, plus it might be illegal to make a copy.
 
This is bad
a first step
the end will be astronomical fines and prison time to some and small fines to all with isp bans to users
no privacy on the internet anymore going from a free natural developing environment to a closed government controlled system with innovations if any coming only from the people in control and from money oriented position with least as possible freedom in mind to the user
 
The isp`s have to consider the revenue they will lose from people who downgrade their service e.g from fibre etc to cheap broadband if they start kicking too much *** over downloading a few bits.
 
What a dickbag move!! (n)
Glad I dont live in that stupid place.... I will pirate a lot though! How else can I watch the animes, play older games, watch movies. Online streaming is hopeless in my place
 
A proxy is just to cover up your web browsing history and say it's from a different IP, the download always goes to your IP unless you use a VPN so.
 
I don't get this story at all. Many ISPs are already fully in bed with the media industry and will happily turn off a customer's Internet for DMCA violations, usually with no warning whatsoever. That's bad enough by itself, but the real problem is that its not that hard to spoof an IP so a lot of innocent people are getting framed. The serious pirates are almost impossible to catch without cooperation from countries who either don't really care or who actually make money from piracy (China, Brazil, etc).
 
Google has a new "trick". If you start doing a search for something which has had DCMA complaints filed on its behalf, the search engine blocks it, a puts up a BS story claiming, "we're getting odd search requests from your computer, like a robot, so would you mind filling out this captcha, before we allow you to continue.We "don't mind" you using our service...but... ......And that's when you punch up BING in another tab.
 
So true. The only use for Bing XD

Oh well, as soon as I get a letter I'll be investing in a good VPN.

I'll change my tune when the media industry gives artists a proper share of the profits & releases media for a reasonable cost with a global release, not this long wait if you're anything but American.

Actually wait, I think I lost my mind for a moment... I take it back, the MPAA & the RIAA can go f*** themselves.
 
Google has a new "trick". If you start doing a search for something which has had DCMA complaints filed on its behalf, the search engine blocks it, a puts up a BS story claiming, "we're getting odd search requests from your computer, like a robot, so would you mind filling out this captcha, before we allow you to continue.We "don't mind" you using our service...but... ......And that's when you punch up BING in another tab.
I have had to contend with the Google Captcpa. But I get it on a regular basis for straight forward searches. I am tempted to switch to an alternative search engine. If they don't fix the problem many others will switch and they could lose their advertising revenue.
 
A proxy is just to cover up your web browsing history and say it's from a different IP, the download always goes to your IP unless you use a VPN so.

Also, a proxy IP address can be entered into the Bit Torrent client software configuration. Peer to Peer packet traffic will go through the particular proxy server concerned.

They could outlaw proxy servers. A bit tricky, since some will be in Russia. They could start suing proxy server owners for facilitating piracy.
 
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