Anonymous

Hertfordshire

Shop Manager

Illegal file sharing is not my problem or that of my ISP, or the government, which should be acting on my behalf, not that of record companies.

The government proposes to make the ISP’s examine every packet of data or file and then, by some magical method not of the government’s devising, determine whether that data is being transferred illegally. Presuming they manage this they would then be expected to report the miscreant to an as yet unidentified body who would, at least for as long as the presumption of innocence remains in this country, have to investigate to ensure that the file was in fact an illegal transfer.

I, as an ISP user would have to pay for this as it would cost a lot of money. I would also likely suffer degradation in my service as each and every file I send or receive would be subject to inspection.

In the case of wireless hotspots and open wifi networks it would be totally impractical, if not impossible to determine who the recipient was, leaving the owner/operator of the service open to unfair prosecution and penalty and possible disconnection.

I wonder if the cost of implementing such a big IT project across all the ISP’s, and the financing of the investigatory and prosecutory bodies would exceed any lost revenues incurred by the media companies. Would they offer to pay for the project and it’s ongoing costs? Would they pay me for the loss of quality of service I could expect?

The media companies have to sort out their own security, their own artists and their own business model, and not come squealing for help to the rest of us. They are frankly not important enough.

If the government is to involve itself in the internet then as a citizen I expect the government to be acting on MY behalf and solving MY problems which simply put are spam and scam. Currently my email filters are removing almost 900 messages a week, which I have to pay for, and I am getting upwards of ten scam invitations a day, including by the way, a nasty new turn in scam email; the death threat if I do not pay.

Unfortunately this, in my view, rather more serious internet crime was dismissed by my county constabulary as something they had no ability to investigate or solve, so what chance is there of a proper investigation by the police of every trivial suspect download?

I say to government; act on behalf of me and my fellow citizens who you are there to represent. Don’t mess with me via my ISP because a few Plc’s can’t manage their own businesses.