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I have been following an interesting story this week about how Lord Mandelson plans to tackle illegal downloaders on the Internet. Pirate downloads of music and films has been a hot topic over recent years and stopping it completely has proven to be a difficult task. However, Lord Mandelson has come up with a plan that might just work, even though it has already been met with criticism.
According to a newspaper, The Business Secretary plans to tackle serial pirates by temporarily suspending their home Internet services, however this would be a method only used after a series of offences. The initial contact will be made via a letter which will warn the Internet user, whilst their details will be passed onto music and other companies, leaving them the option to sue the person or not.
I think this tactic seems like a good way to tackle music and video piracy, as I think it will deter a lot of people who use the Internet on a daily basis and in many respects couldn't comprehend life without the Internet. However it does have it's drawbacks, say for example in a family home of two adults and two children. If one member of that household is a serial downloader and the Internet is cut off because of that one person, is it fair on the remainder of the house? Especially if they were unaware of the person's illegal activities!
The main opposition has come from Internet service providers who think that the scheme won't work due to the cost and technical issues but also because modern technology makes it possible for people to disguise their Internet identities. Clearly the people most against Internet piracy are those that produce the content that is being stolen. Musicians, actors, directors, record companies etc are all against illegal downloading of their content and in fairness why should they produce this content (which isn't cheap to produce) to have it stolen?
It's always going to create an interesting debate until it's either resolved or if there is no resolution it just continues so I guess it's a waiting game to see if Mandelson's plan comes into force and then if it's going to work!
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