BBC Report on UK file-sharing policy

BBC NEWS | Technology | Anger at UK file-sharing policy

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Tougher sanctions on file sharing

 

I noted in the first article, "It is estimated that half of all the traffic on the net in the UK is content that is shared illegally".

One could only hope prior to any measures being taken that the Government truly clarifies exactly what things they would consider as being shared illegally?

For instance, some sites let people download music - and these downloads are considered 'legal' - other sites with music, and it's illegal. And so many other things ... all a tad confusing as to what illegal and what is not, perhaps.

 

That is conservative estimate, but the fact is while a Music DVD £10 to £16 and a Movie DVD is £20 to £40, they wont stop people downloading,

and if they do they will just increase crime as teenagers are really resourcefull in getting something they want.

Just makes me wonder what reallity polititions live in because its not the one I do

 

The problem with this is the wrong people will suffer. Someone breaks into a wireless network and downloads music the owner will be the one to suffer. He has done nothing wrong he is just ignorant on security.
The argument now is that there will be no trial they propose to kick you off the internet without proving your guilty of any crime. You may use P2P but it may be genuine freeware you are downloading.

 

Also a member raised a question about Kontiki which is a P2P application used By Channel 4 4OD and BBC's BBC iplayer, which is basically to save them Bandwidth, but but works by uploading it to other users while you download, so how can they differentiate

Not to mention that more and more public places are installing open wifi services so people can use their laptops while on their premises, so sounds like a good deal to me, set the netbook up, pop down the pub have lunch and a drink while you download a movie to watch when you go home.

I think that this is going to be another case of legislation being rushed through with no thought on how to enforce it, and as you say innocent people will suffer, or is it a case of hoping that the fear of prosecution will stop most people from using torrent software.

 

I will add to this if I may?

Virginmedia have used the soft approach on P2P.

They introduced capping around the time they gave free upgrades on broadband speeds.They failed to notify customers of this capping and untill you nagged at them to fix your slow issues there staff never admitted to capping the speed.

They admitted to trying to curb illegal file shareing and this is why they decided to cap.

Once you reached a daily download limit Virginmedia slow your speed to usaly around a 20 th of your normal speed for anywere between 5 1/2 - 10 hours.You speed will evetualy go up again.

What they appear to of realy done is to limit how much you download per day,it appears in no way to of curbed people from downloading illegal files.This then goes along the lines ohh I reached my 3 meg download allowance I will download the rest of my illegal files tomorrow.So realy I see no purpose of capping speeds.You can just workoffline.

Virginmedia doing this then inturn became a good tool for me.As they didnt notify customers of the capping many many Virgin customers were unaware of this.

When a member came online saying there speed was slow and wanted help with this issue.Seeing they were with Virginmedia or one of the companys they bought out like NTL helped staff and other members not to spend hours trying to fix a slow broadband issue which could not be fixed.

I would politley explain to the member Virginmedia,s policy on capping and slowing there speed and was this possibly there issue,that they have reached there download limit.

Usaly the member went away after saying thankyou for the information,yup we then could tell that this member used P2P fileshare software to an extereme limits.

Some members would try it on and try to get us to bypass the capping.Yeah right how can we fix this?

So Virginmedia gave me a great tool to stop myself and others wasted time posting loads of fixes such as ipconfig,update drivers and so on.

A few polite questions to a member usaly resolves why they have slow speeds.


I also would like to add about Sky.com.

I noticed with Sky once you have been online for a certain amount of hours and in my case usaly an average of 12-16 hours per day.They then keep dropping my connection.They do this with many others I know or have delt with.

They are not dropping my connection because I am using P2P,please do not think that way.Myne is due to many hours surfing.

This appears to be down to fair usage policy,I doubt anyone was notified of this either?

So again when someone comes online and says there connection keeps dropping out and there with Sky I can almost garrantee they have either been online for many hours or they have used up there fair usage allowance buy downloading files from P2P file share programs.

Ok there are the few that the above doesnt apply to.

But a few well put questions to a member could save us trying yet again to fix a problem that doesnt exist but is actualy down to capping or fair usage policy set by Broad Band providors.

But we must also remember P2P software is not illegal and many people use it for legal purposes.


Maybe a sticky should be posted on the above capping and fairusage policy for each ISP company would help members and staff to resolve why there internet is slow or disconnecting all the time.

 

this is a good idea that I think we should do, as everything you have posted is very true,

But ROFL I have completly different issues that make using torrents, or downloading pretty pointless like 2 Mile of copper cable "BT grumble cuss swear, should have told me this before taking my £125 connection fee and tieing me into an 18 month contract"

OK I'll Brush the Chip off my shoulder one day till then BT will be cussed

But Back to topic if anyone reading this has had a similar problem with Sky Verginmedia or there ISP could they please post the details, and we will see if we can't just get a sticky but a warning about ISP's Bandwidth policys

and if you a guest and reading this please feel free to join just to give us your views on your ISP, and more if you wish

 

I will be going back to Virginmedia as soon as my Sky contract is up.

 

You're so right, samuria - the wrong people will suffer too!

I'm not even sure what 'torrent' means - but there's 5 people using my poor computer and I cringe at the very thought of a law punishing the owner of the computer - eep!