British ISPs must unmask downloaders

U.K. court's decision will allow the British Phonographic Association to track down 28 alleged illegal downloaders.

The story "British ISPs must unmask downloaders" published October 15, 2004 at 7:00 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Burnsie001]

Woo?

"music industry officials have defended their decision to sue song-swappers as a necessary step to woo back music fans from file-sharing networks"

How do you _woo_ people by sueing them?

[Not Bugged]

once again...

It is pathetic to see the attempts by individual governments and organizations believing they have the power to control the internet. What would prevent a subscriber from signing up with an ISP based somewhere other than Britain? Satellite access is frequently available in most parts of the world, so isolation is more dependent on lack of money for the service rather than the efficiency of government censorship. The real issue here is control of communication, not song stealing. I read that China is attempting to set up their own Internet. That should give them access to less data for more money. One third of the world's population enslaved by evil and greed.

Scare tactics don't work... in most cases

This is pretty much a scare tactic measure... can you imagine how many heavy (and not so heavy) downloaders are sitting wondering if it's them that is going to recieve a letter in 14 days?!? The majority of people are scared enough not to even try downloading an MP3 or similar (legally or not) to their PC's for fear of being prosecuted through all the scaremongering in the media. YES, they will prosecute the token few but you tell me how they could even try to prosecute every single person in the UK that has at one point or another, downloaded copyrighted material. This is an obviously pathetic way to go about things.
Perhaps they should consider investigating the people that download copyrighted material PURELY for their own financial gain, be it in films, music, games, etc. These are the people that copy and sell in mass numbers the material they illegally download. These are the people that are supposedly ripping off the 'corporations' (who are more than willing to rip 'us' off with extortionate prices in the UK and constant re-releasing of titles in every which way they can imagine to squeeze every last penny out of their consumer targets)
What about the people who download for purely personal use and do not get any financial gain out of their file sharing activities? How are downloaders ripping of corporations by downloading material that:
1) They would never have bought in the first place?
2) Once they have downloaded it have decided they would not have bought it because they don't like the material?
3) Are sick and tired of being ripped off with UK prices?
I could go on forever, but I am making points clear that are already commonsense!
There are far, FAR more serious matters and crimes for the courts of this country to deal with than clogging them up with token prosecutions to act as a beacon warning against anyone even remotely considering the evil 'FILE SHARING' of modern times.
Taping from the radio did NOT kill music as was predicted in the 1980's... let's get real and realise that there will ALWAYS be a market for high quality product at a reasonable price in the entertainment sector. All we ask is NOT to be ripped off...

[r2d2d3d4d5]

Will they be sent to prison?

So what happens when someone cannot pay the music industries fines? Do you start sending kids to prison for copyright infringement? The prisons are supposed to be full as it is. Who is going to pay the thousands that it is going to cost to keep these people in prison?

Secondly, I believe that suing people at random to make examples of them is morally wrong. You should either sue everyone that you believe is guilty or no one.