The UK government has today been accused of backtracking on an earlier pledge to cut internet piracy and illegal file sharing by 70% between 2008 in 2010. While officially the targets remain the same, behind the scenes the government has laid the groundwork for this particularly tough target to be moved to “sometime in the future”. Off the record the government has blamed ISPs for the slow introduction of various systems which would enable the industry as a whole to monitor more closely the sharing of files and other online piracy.
It looks very much as though the UK government will pass the burden of monitoring Internet piracy back to the ISPs and take a step back itself. A White Paper published last month recommended that UK ISPs should be forced to write to customers found guilty of the illegally sharing of files and those involved in other areas of Internet piracy. If customers ignore various warnings from their ISP this could leave them susceptible to civil action in the courts and a potentially large penalty.
There is no doubt that Internet piracy continues to be a major problem for the industry and one which is difficult to eliminate completely. Whether passing the burden back to the ISPs is the right move remains to be seen because in some ways this gives the UK ISPs a conflict of interest.