Update: Virgin Media in discussions with rights holders
Monday 31 March 2008 13:58:16 by Andrew Ferguson
UPDATE 1st April 2008: Virgin Media has issued a statement in response to the Sunday Telegraph item which we covered, our original news item is at the end of this updated item.
"We have been in discussions with rights holders organisations about how a voluntary scheme could work. As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media is taking this problem seriously and would favour a sensible voluntary solution."
Statement from Virgin Media
It appears that no trials in conjunction with the BPI are taking place at this time, which is very different situation to what was reported by the Sunday Telegraph and referenced by us in our original news item.
The issue of how any voluntary scheme for policing media rights should work is a hot topic and it seems a lot of the broadband industry would like to come to a voluntary arrangement, rather than a legislative one. If any single broadband provider goes it alone they will be brave, since the impact on illegal sharing of copyrighted material would likely be minimal as people would simply switch to a provider that has not implemented its own scheme yet.
The Guardian has a list of sites online where you can download music legally, some sites operate subscription services which if you are an avid consumer of music tracks may prove cheaper, but many subscription service tracks expire when you cease to pay the subscription.
Virgin Media looks set to come down hard on people caught illegally downloading copyrighted music. According to The Telegraph the BPI is working with Virgin Media in a pilot that could see dozens of customers being sent warning letters.
Apparently the system is set to go live within months, and persistent offenders will see their broadband connection terminated. At this stage it is not clear whether just the broadband component will be terminated, or telephone and TV services also. Even if only the broadband component is terminated people may find their package price changing due to the way the bundle deals work.
A couple of months ago we saw Tiscali fall out with the BPI with regard to who pays for the work involved in enforcing the warnings. Now one of the big four providers appears to be going for unilateral action, the move is likely to cost them some customers, but this will be balanced by those leaving freeing up network capacity.
Some Virgin Media cable customers are concerned over how Virgin Media will identify people, since in some areas of the country issues such as cloned modems and unauthorised connections to the network could lead to the wrong address being fingered.
In theory, billions of pounds are lost through illegally downloaded music, so it will be interesting to see what impact moves like this have on sales at the various legal music download sites. One thing that may change quicker is that companies will stop advertising their broadband connections in terms of their ability to allow downloading of thousands of tracks per day.
Original news item as published 31st March 2008
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in ref: to the billions of punds in the article.
When are the music companies going to get over that they assume every downloaded track would otherwise have been purchased and that every downloaded track has not been purchased.
Given cloned modems are endemic on VM's network...
quote"...in some areas of the country issues such as cloned modems and unauthorised connections to the network could lead to the wrong address being fingered."
Id say that is the biggest worry, its known fact virgin modems, connections and so much more are cloned this in theory means an innocent customer could end up prosecuted and even worse if they challenge it they could end up with a criminal record for doing nothing wrong. Another reason to jump ship from these clowns that have screwed cable internet good and proper in England.
Dozens out of millions... I doubt most will be losing sleep.
VM could address the cloned issue and apparently are in some areas, shame they can't be bothered in all and look at the bottom line of how cheaply they can acquire modems ahead of their security in the ex-ntl areas. The same short termism that had lead them through the crapper more than once.
I am betting as an ex customer I get a letter....
Are these guys seriously trying to drive themselves out of business?
Its the old story.
BT has had to suffer huge losses (Like I care) by opening up its network to LLU and all the other companies etc etc.
Now virgin just purchased what Videotron and Cable and Wireless installed. Why is Virgin not being asked to allow other companies to acces their network and take the heat like BT eh?
Or could it be old fungus face is a good freind of old tony B and the rest of the thieves?
At the end of the day if you don't like traffic managment DUMP virgin instead of moaning all the time
I can't understand why people without an account with vm still have a physical connection to the cab/kerb ..surely when people disconnect they should be removed totally from the network this would help with cloned modems and set top boxes
Guzzo - Don't assume people have a choice. I rent, and generally don't.
2doorsbob you make a very good and common sense point, however with virgin nothing is common sense
Common sense is thousands of pounds of road works whenever someone signs up to or disconnects from a cable network? Heh.
quote"Dozens out of millions... I doubt most will be losing sleep."
Considering Virgin thereself dont even know how many cloned modems or illegal connections there are in the UK i find your estimation rather amusing.
"One thing that may change quicker is that companies will stop advertising their broadband connections in terms of their ability to allow downloading of thousands of tracks per day."
Companies such as VM.
Meanwhile I may start taking up Bit torrent P2P as it looks like a good way of getting out of the devil's VM contract :)