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A British Internet service provider has warned of astronomical costs to fight media piracy, to the point that the piracy itself is less costly.
Speaking with The Mirror, BT’s consumer division head, John Petter, said government plans to force piracy monitoring on ISPs could cost £1 million a day. That’s £365 million per year, compared to music industry claims that piracy accounts for £200 million per year in lost revenue.
Granted, the policing efforts that may be thrust upon ISPs would also cover software and movie downloads. That’d theoretically bring the overall piracy savings up, but only assuming that the BSI’s claim of £200 million lost is accurate. And we all know that the industry tends to inflate its figures, assuming that every illegal download is a lost sale.
The government’s plans were revealed late last month in an amendment to its Digital Britain report. It recommended the termination of Internet service for repeat illegal downloaders, relying on ISPs to do the legwork of finding and punishing offenders. The report suggests that rights holders and ISPs split the cost of hunting down pirates.
BT’s not the only ISP opposed to the plan. TalkTalk and Orange UK joined with BT to publish an open letter to the government, calling the proposed anti-piracy measures a “‘kangaroo court’ process where evidence is not properly tested and accused broadband users are denied the right to defend themselves against false accusations.”
It’s tempting to laugh at the government and Big Content for pursuing such a foolish endeavor, but the tragedy is that these piracy costs could be passed on to Internet subscribers, regardless of whether they’re engaged in illegal downloads. BT says broadband bills could increase by £24 per year to pay for enforcement.
Petter alleges that the entertainment industry wants to pass enforcement onto ISPs in order to avoid lawsuits that tarnish the industry’s public image. But if all consumers are forced to pay for the actions of illegal downloaders, Big Content will only come out looking worse than ever.
8 Comments
You have different types of piracy - and for the people who would download something without ever paying for it, well, you haven't lost any money because they do not value the product enough to pay for it.
You could compare it to another business such as Antique dealing. The Antique is only worth something to the person who 'values' that item. Although in this case as the antiques are unique objects, they cannot be 'cloned' like digital media.
It's a very complicated subject - and I enjoy reading different opinions about it.
It says "...BT’s consumer division head, John Petter, said government plans to force piracy monitoring on ISPs could cost £1 million a day."
That would mean the stupid government is going to FORCE the ISPs to implement monitoring that would cost the PROVIDERS. Not the weenies who cry about the supposed losses.
And even with monitoring, there is no way they will stop "piracy." It's purely a waste of money to force the ISPs to do anything about it. Stupid content makers (music, movies, software, etc.) should learn to make products at a price people will pay and then they can stop pretending that they lose money to "piracy."
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Originally Posted by Axel_Pressbutton
Piracy is a very grey area. Content providers who are worried about their 'property' should re-price their products towards a 'global market'. Charge less money, and have MORE people buy your product.
You have different types of piracy - and for the people who would download something without ever paying for it, well, you haven't lost any money because they do not value the product enough to pay for it. You could compare it to another business such as Antique dealing. The Antique is only worth something to the person who 'values' that item. Although in this case as the antiques are unique objects, they cannot be 'cloned' like digital media. It's a very complicated subject - and I enjoy reading different opinions about it. |
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Originally Posted by Chuckwagon
DrageMester,
It says "...BT’s consumer division head, John Petter, said government plans to force piracy monitoring on ISPs could cost £1 million a day." |
The companies complaining about revenue loss due to "piracy" are the Content Providers, but the companies having to implement anti-piracy measures are the Internet Service Providers.
So why would the Content Providers care that some other companies have to pay costs that are greater than the Content Providers' estimated loss? They wouldn't.
So comparing the costs with the losses is irrelevant, since losses and costs are not incurred by the same companies.
Company "B" (ISP) is forced to pay anti-piracy costs to potentially reduce lost profit for company "A" (content provider). This isn't fair regardless of whether the cost is higher than the reduction in lost profit or not!
About this category
Piracy
- The constant fight against, or enjoyment of pirated movies, music albums and games can be found here. This news channel brings the latest on law suits that are piracy related, busted duplicators and P2P services. More about this
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