They're now fining people thousands of pounds for file sharing. Are service providers being snitches?

Question

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4564439.ece

..now while this is in fact illegal, it's not like Madonna or Jay Z need any more of my money. It's nice to have a madonna collection on my ipod, but I'd rather listen to Muse, and will never pay for Madonna. So if I'm caught with some, and I get fined, is that really fair?

...also, are the service providers getting paid out to do this, or forced to by law? I'd love to see how many people will change to a provider with a "your business is your business" policy!!

Answer 1

This is worse than internet censorship that the press is up in arms about. They are allowed to pass your name to some black-shirts who can come knocking on your door and take your PC away. And we are supposed to live in a free country! One rule for them and one for us.

Answer 2

Well it's not fair that the ordinary guy on the street has to pay the fines or get a criminal record because of it. If they really don't want us to file share illegally, they should make Limewire and the others take the fines and punishments, or at least take away the option of searching for music on those sites.

As long as those options are available, of course people are going to use it to get some free tunes for their mp3 players or ipods.

Answer 3

I am very weary of these file sharing sites. well after looking at some over the weeks I have found a lot with comments like. Beware Virus. trojan horse. backdoor something or other. must find out what that means... I wish I had stored my copy of a software on one of these sites broke my disk and I just don't think I can go and buy another copy of Corel draw for a long time....Besides aren't some games for macs or pcs and linux. you could waste hours downloading some files and find it won't work as it is the wrong format.  

Answer 4

I agree with Kev couldn't have put it better, nothing would surprise me in these world of greed, everyone chasing the proverbial buck with no thought of who they may be hurting.

Answer 5

I  don't  think  this  will really  stop  it.  Someone  said  'suppose  i  bought  and  album  or  dvd  and  passed  it on  to  a  friend  who  then  passed  it on  to  another  friend,  isn't  this really  the  same  thing.  But  because  it's  done  over  the  net  it's  different?  If  i  couldn't  watch  another  film  or  listen  to  another  album,  so  what.  I  doubt  iv'e  heard  or  listened  to  about  2%  of  what's  out  there  anyway.  I  don't  watch   the  latest  'blockbuster'  movie  or  album.  They're  not   getting  any  more  money  out of  me,  i'd  sooner do  without  and  let them all go  bust.

Answer 6

I'm sorry but I don't agree,The law must be able to trace who is who otherwise child perverts and sickos of this world will have freedom to do as they please without restriction of any kind, I too like getting my music for nothing but not at the expense of someone else's life.Freedom comes at a price.

Answer 7

It's nothing to do with how you feel, or how rich someone is. The point is it is against the law. There are many laws we don't like, but we still have to abide by them. If you get caught then you just accept the situation.

Edit; If the ISP is subpoenaed to hand over your details to the BPI's lawyers then they have no other course of action but to do so.