After the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said last week that ISPs "allowed copyright theft to run rampant on their networks, causing a massive devaluation of copyrighted music", the BPI has also gone on the offensive.

The BPI's chief executive Geoff Taylor said: "The time has come for ISPs to stop dragging their feet and start showing some responsibility, by taking reasonable steps to counter illegal music freeloading. Their failure to do so until now is extraordinary - and it can't be allowed to go on.

"We have been negotiating with ISPs to implement reasonable procedures under which they would advise customers if their account is being used to distribute music illegally, and then, if the advice is ignored, enforce their own terms and conditions. But UK ISPs refuse to do even that on any meaningful scale," Taylor continued.

However, policing the networks isn't a simple task, with many illegal file-sharers encrypting the data they send and receive in order to evade detection. Conclusively proving that anyone was sharing copyrighted content would require ISPs to dedicate a large amount of resources to monitoring their networks.

And the issue of whether it is the job of an ISP to enforce copyright laws has been the topic of much debate for several years.

ISP PlusNet was unequivocal in its assessment of the BPI and IFPI's demands for ISPs to police file sharing.

"We don't believe it is the place of an ISP to police what people download. We expect our customers to take responsibility for their actions. We offer our customers guidelines and information on all aspects of their online activities," PlusNet's Neil Armstrong told Web User.

"The technical and commercial implications of ISPs proactively tracking all downloads and blocking copyright material would be too much for any ISP to bear and would have an adverse effect of the industry as a whole. In addition to this, we have an obligation to our customers to protect their personal data, and we take this very seriously indeed," Armstrong continued.

However, Tiscali took a more diplomatic approach.

"We do not want illegal material travelling across our network any more than the music industry and we have worked with the BPI to suggest a three strikes policy that is workable for us and them.

We would welcome a meaningful higher level debate, engaging with rights holders to see what we can achieve practically, economically and within a legal framework," Tiscali spokeswoman Jody Haskayne told Web User.

But the BPI's Taylor did say that he wanted the music industry and ISPs to work together in the future.

"The music business wants to partner with ISPs to create new music services that would deliver even greater value for consumers, creators, and to ISPs. An internet that rewards creativity - while offering music lovers unprecedented choice and value for money - is in the long term interest of all of us."

The BPI was recently nominated for the Internet Villain of the Year Award by the Internet Service Provider's Association, ISPA, for its "heavy-handed" approach to the issue of file sharing.

www.bpi.co.uk
www.ifpi.org
www.plus.net
www.ispa.org.uk

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