Broadband Column

Fighting internet piracy

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A few weeks ago, the Government announced plans to fight online piracy by cutting illegal downloaders from the net.

Every year, the creative industries lose millions of pounds because of internet pirates who share music, movies and TV files online illegally. But is time to stop criminalising internet piracy and find a viable alternative to illegal downloading? (18/09/09)

Government u-turn

In its original Digital Britain report back in June, the Government said that ISPs would be required to send warning letters to suspected file sharers - steps that some of the bigger providers, including BT Broadband (www.BT.com) and Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com), have already taken.

It was decided that, if “educating offenders” didn’t reduce piracy by 70 per cent - the Government’s target for 2012 - Ofcom would be given the power to throttle users’ connections, reducing their ability to download content.

However, in a policy u-turn, the Government decided on a more heavy-handed approach, saying that the plans would take too long to implement “given the pressure put on the creative industries by piracy”. Under the new proposals, ISPs would be required to block access to illegal download sites, throttle broadband connections and even temporarily disconnect users who regularly share files online.

The UK’s two biggest broadband providers, both supporters of the previous plans, voiced their concerns.

“BT is disappointed by the announcement. We were broadly supportive of the original plans but these changes run the risk of penalising customers unfairly. We believe the creative industries need to play a larger role in tackling copyright infringement and so we will be making our views known to the government,” said BT.

Virgin Media added: “We are also concerned that, as they stand, the government's funding proposals would increase costs and penalise ISPs who want to invest in making implementation efficient, while doing little to encourage rights holders to use the regime in a proportionate way and complicating the evolution of new legitimate services.”

Policing the net

One of the biggest problems with the proposals is the question of whose responsibility it is to police the net. The Government’s plan puts the onus on ISPs - making it their responsibility to keep customers on the straight and narrow, and disciplining them with warning letters and even suspension if they share files illegally online.

However, this extra responsibility won’t come cheap, and as provider’s costs rise, it is consumers who will ultimately end up paying the price.

Secondly, there is the issue of privacy. In order to find out whether or not we’re downloading illegally, ISPs would need to check the data being send to and from each customer’s computer.

TalkTalk Broadband (www.TalkTalk.co.uk), which has been particularly vocal about its views on policing the net, said that this would “breach fundamental rights” and would not work. A host of other consumer groups, including Which?, Consumer Focus and the Open Rights Group also voiced their concerns.

Shared networks

Millions of people access the internet using wireless broadband, many of whom have an unsecured connection. This means that the proposed method of using IP addresses - used to identify individual connections - to detect illegal filesharers would be highly unreliable.

Other people could easily be piggybacking your connection or members of your own household could be sharing files illegally online - resulting in innocent users being disconnected.

It is also relatively easy for computer-literate users to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection - making it even more difficult and expensive to track down illegal filesharers in the first place. It is quite likely that, faced with the prospect of being cut from the net, illegal downloaders will simply find a new way to share files.

The situation abroad

France’s “three strikes” law - designed to cut repeat illegal downloaders from the net for up to a year - was first proposed in November 2007, and was followed by similar plans in America, Ireland, New Zealand, and now the UK.

However, the law was struck down by judges in France earlier this year, after they ruled that “free access” to online communications services was a human right, and that the method of policing the web envisaged in the law breached a citizen's right to privacy.

The cost of online piracy

Despite the concerns surrounding the Government’s new plans, no one can deny that some form of action is needed. The total loss to the entertainment industries through copyright theft - which includes home burning and borrowing of other people's fake DVDs as well as illegal filesharing - was £486 million in 2007, and an estimated 6.5 million Brits illegally downloaded music and films last year.

New business models

While blocking access to illegal filesharing websites, and threatening offenders with broadband suspension might deter some illegal downloaders, ultimately the entertainment industries need to accept that consumer habits are changing.

The number of visits to leading “torrent” websites, which essentially act as portals for illegal filesharers, has nearly doubled over the past year, according to research from media analysts Big Champagne.

And it’s not just music and movies that are sought after. American programmes that are aired in the States before the UK are a big pull; around 55 million people downloaded US drama Heroes this year - making it the most popular illegal download, followed by Lost, which 51 million users chose to download illegally, rather than wait for it to be aired here.

In today’s global community, consumers in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter, do not want to wait months for shows that have already been aired in the States.

Content providers need to come up with new business models that accommodate consumers’ changing habits.

Mark Schmid, from TalkTalk, said: “There's been a real split among content owners when it comes to readjusting to the new digital landscape. Some - such as computer games companies - have been clever and come up with innovative ways to discourage piracy and maintain customer loyalty, for instance through adding extra levels to computer games that you only get if you’ve bought the product. But other content sectors - most notably the music industry - have failed to innovate and have blamed the internet for spoiling their old ways of doing business. We think this is extremely complacent. The internet is now a fact of life and we believe new business models need to be introduced if they want to survive and thrive in the digital world.”

Free services like the BBC iPlayer and Channels 4’s 4oD have proved amazingly popular, while ad-funded, internet TV site Hulu has been a huge success showing programmes like Family Guy and The Office in the States. A UK version of the website has been proposed, but the launch date has repeatedly delayed, with a difficulty in securing broadcasting deals and a lack of UK content being blamed for the set-backs. Hulu is now due to go live here in 2010.

Many people claim that realistic, affordable, subscription-based music and movie downloads are the answer to solving the illegal downloading problem, but research has shown that many consumers just do not want to pay for content today, preferring ad-funded services or illegal downloads, and some even claim that illegal downloading habits are now “entrenched” .

For example, even though Radiohead’s album In Rainbows was made available for free on its website, more people still chose to downloaded it illegally through peer-to-peer networks.

“These non-traditional venues [peer-to-peer websites] are stubbornly entrenched, incredibly popular and will never go away,” Eric Garland, co-author of a study for Big Champagne, told The Times earlier this year. “It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want.”

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