ISP’s to watch the Net for the RIAA? Hahahahahahaha

The Government white paper on disconnecting P2P users from the Net. One news outlet correctly described the proposal; toilet paper.

Why do non-technical people try to make technical decisions without first consulting the technical people? Then complain loudly its all the technical people’s fault (the government haven’t got to this bit yet)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7246403.stm

The 2 major points in this; its illegal for ISPs to monitor what traffic is going to a user without a warrant, and there are many many legal uses of P2P (BBC iPlayer , linux distros, Napster).

Its similar to asking the Highways Agency to stop bad drivers from using the roads. Why would they do that? They just build and maintain the roads, its up to the law and police to catch the wrongdoers.

Herein lies the problem. It shouldn’t be the ISP’s job to monitor P2P and enforce summary judgement on a user; what if someone else used their wireless?

What about places that provide internet access, like, I dunno, libraries? Schools? Universities? Cafes? You going to disconnect all of them?

Is the ban in place on a house? Person? Given the current amount of data going “missing”, I wouldn’t trust the government with holding a blacklist of users.

If the ban is on a house, how long for? A student area has a really high turnover of tenants, and a really high need for the Net.

Finally, would ISPs cut off their customers? £15 a month, 12 months a year is £180. Cut off even 10,000 users and the ISPs have lost £1.8million. £1.8million. Thats assuming that everyone they cut off is using the basic tariff only; no higher ones at all.

So, are the Government going to refund this money to the ISPs? I know, how about the BPI paying them, you know the people who would really want this white paper to be passed into law.

The Government should have turned around to the BPI and said, basically, get lost. It isn’t our job to help you prop up an outdated business model; you already have the tools (copyright law) to sue offenders.

The BPI, IFPI and RIAA should;

1. Not rip off the artist with < 10% royalties,
2. Not rip off the customer with stupid prices

instead of lobbying for a draconian and effectively unimplementable “solution”. You’re not making any friends in the british public, BPI et al. We can spot bollocks when we see it.

EDIT From el reg; http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/15/tiscali_bpi_agreement/