1 movie rar'd into, say, 10 parts and given some random name like "Family trip to Az-pt1", uploaded to a file storage site, rapidshare, megaupload etc. and encrypted with a password... How could they tell? I doubt they can.

I think its wrong, i have no money but the money i do have i spend on things like DVDs. If piracy was not an option i would just see less films because i cant afford to buy any more.

Students should be exempt to a point i think.

Are you being serious? I can't decide whether this is a troll attempt or not

I think it's only right and proper.

The main problem I see with it is who gets to police it and how reliable will they be?
Who gets to decide the difference between an illegal download and a legal one?

I can just see innocent people being cut off and going through hell to get reconnected - or horror stories from people who have bought a house from someone who had been cut off...

I'd love to see them actually enforce this.

Until then.. I think i'll keep file sharing..

Like I said above, there's more to file sharing than obvious things like torrents and p2p apps...

HMV are not going to be doing student cards anymore I believe, maybe I'm wrong.

Places like iTunes could maybe do some kinda student discount thing though, that could help a little.

Although I'm no copyright expert it seems to me that downloading a copyrighted work is not illegal. Subsequently using it is, which makes downloading it a bit of a waste of time if you're trying to stay onside with the law.
The BPI are very vocal about the fact that when you buy a CD you're not buying the song, the physical CD or even the bits and bytes that make up the songs. You're buying a licence to use the bits and bytes in a domestic environment.

Too be blunt, it's not as if people that download stuff do it to avoid buying it, they were never going to buy it, and never are going to buy it.

If anything, hearing a random song someone as downloaded that they have heard in a film, has actually made them download a few albums from Itunes.

All this talk about money being taken away from the companies is complete bollocks simply because they would never have earned it in the first place.

Those that buy Music and films, will buy music and films, those that don't, never will, never have, and nothing anyone does is going to make them. If they can't download it, they simply won't watch or listen to it.

The way they report damage to the industry is absurd and seriously exaggerated and dramatic.

I'm not saying downloading things illegally is right before anyone gets on their high horse, I'm saying that I wouldn't buy into this bull**** these companies spring to make it look like they are going under because someone who was never going to buy the film anyway, watched it.

Basically, cut off the down-loaders, do whatever you need to do, but if you think your all of a sudden going to make more money, or less losses, they are being delusional, the idea that cutting off a downloader is going to somehow generate a sale is complete nonsense. You are still going to lose money regardless, all your going to do is reduce the exposure of your products.

There has been a follow-up news item with responses from ISP's. See this thread

I was Specifically referring to music with that part;

Answer this; How many times have you bought an album because you saw an advert for 30 seconds on a TV or a poster at a bus stop?

now, how many times have you bought an album or song because you heard it somewhere outside of marketing? IE, on someone elses Ipod or PC, a website, attached to a youtube video etc etc etc?

I think we're probably well into the point where media and distribution has to change to keep up with current technology and trends.

Problem is, we're up against a few big industries who like things as they are, and will need more than a few geeks downloading stuff in order to prompt them to change.

The best way to get rid of something like file sharing is to embrace it. Make it official, license it, sort out how you are going to make some money out of it and invest in technology to keep it secure. There's nothing there that we can't technically do already.

I for one would be happy to pay a few quid for an album that I could download safely and quickly somewhere like itunes rather than mess around with free file sharing and end up getting a grainy copy of the new Star Trek film in Japanese. Or porn. Or a virus.

here here rep for that man

Yep, Rep for JonnyMX.

I hadn't actually looked at the digital britain report until these news items popped up, I'm reading it as we speak. The main thing thats struck me? Christ its badly formatted, the margins wonder all over the place. Oh and:

"most importantly for the political leadership of the Prime Minister, whose recognition
of the importance of this sector and the need for a coherent strategy are what has
made this work possible."

crawler.

EDIT: One more, "and increasingly electronic literature" is this phrase missing some punctuation? or is that just me?