Saw an item on the BBC news last night saying that Lord Mandelson is to bring in tougher laws to prevent internet users in the UK downloading free music, and that they would force ISPs to give the authorities the details of their customers who they knew were doing it.

The ISPs are not happy about this, and I wonder if it really would be enforceable. Maybe they would try out a few test cases with heavy media coverage to try and frighten the rest of us into being good little minions. If this happened and it was somehow enforceable, what would it do for sites that allow downloading?

I'd be interested in to hear your opinions on this, and do we in the UK really have anything to worry about.

On a personal note, if I download a piece of music, even at the excellent quality of FLAC, and I really like it, I will probably buy the original CD album anyway. Over the years I have amassed a collection of over 2,000 real physical CD albums, and I feel I've been ripped off by the record companies for most of this time, so if I download an album that maybe has only one track I like, and the rest are crap I feel in some way justified, as they have been doing that sort of thing to us for years, making us buy whole albums just to get once decent track, and with the inflated prices for CDs in the UK compared to the rest of the world. That's why we are known as rip-off Britain, and we are taken for mugs because we just accept it.

I dont know how it is over in the UK, but over here in the States, the RIAA's focus has mostly been uploaders. I'm interested to hear what other people think about this as well.

Lord Stephen Carter and 25 other civil servants spent 8 months and a couple of million to come up with a report recommending that ISP's did not attempt to disconnect downloaders of films and music etc.

Lord Mandelson went on holiday in Corfu.......where he had a dinner with David Geffen (billionaire owner of Geffen Records and co-founder of Dreamworks Studios).

As soon as Mandelsons holiday is over, Lord Carter is told 'he's wrong', the report is scrapped and tougher action looks to be on the books.

^^


h++p://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6809329.ece

They won't do shit, they're just trying to threaten people and hope they stop

I hope you're right ;)

How harsh are the penalties over in the UK? Over here, it's mostly outrageous fines if you get caught by the music industry, but I haven't heard of a case where someone had to go to jail.

How much for, say a popular new cd that just came out. I'd like to see how it comepares over here in the States.

Well the law to clamp down on Internet users who download copyrighted music and films passed in the House of Commons in the UK last night, and now it just has to go through the House of Lords before it actually becomes the law. ISPs will be forced to give the authorities the names and addresses of users who are doing this downloading, with first off sending out warning letters, and then forcing ISPs to cut off the offending users internet connection, for persistent offenders.

Looks like Big Brother is almost here!