'Three strikes' law will hurt ISPs more than music piracy hurts labels, says BT

Earlier this week, French parliament approved the highly controversial 'three strikes' law for Internet pirates, giving authorities the power to disconnect multiple time offenders from the Web completely.

The bill has been advocated by the media companies for some time now but has faced critical opposition in most nations. The media companies have also thrown around a lot of big numbers to justify the law, for example saying that music piracy costs the UK economy �200 million every year.

The ISPs have begun to fight back however, and BT in the UK has recently stated that the three strikes laws would cost ISPs �1 million a day in lost customers and infrastructure costs. Doing some quick math and we see that the �365 million it will cost ISPs is a lot more damaging then the "�200 million" that music piracy is costing the economy. Of course, both figures have little to no solid data to back them up, but still a very interesting debate.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Sep 2009 14:07

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12 comments

wiimatrix

If my ISP cuts me off then they will not have my custom for the internet,TV or phone.As for music i dont download any or buy any cos there is nothing out there any good!!!!.

26.9.2009 14:43 #1

GryphB

Finally someone out there is thinking. Well quite frankly when all of these so called pirates lose their connection and ISP's are losing money, the tables will turn, or the amount it costs to have internet access will sky rocket to make up for the difference on unsuspecting, non-guilty people.

26.9.2009 15:38 #2

scorpNZ

Makes ya wonder where the monetary figures come from,certainly not from trees,hmmm perhaps you can now just pluck it out of thin air,well i can dream can't i :p

26.9.2009 15:52 #3

Amak

Of course the ISPs will lose more than the labels: the labels lose $0! Can't wait for these damn cartels to collapse...perhaps then the internet might actually improve.

27.9.2009 02:30 #4

windsong

No wonder some of the smart Beatles moved out of the UK...its a maaaadhouse!! And certainly going to be taken over by a certain demographic in a few years, if population trends are to be believed.

27.9.2009 02:47 #5

canuckerz

Well at least the ISP's are on our side for a change.

27.9.2009 03:43 #6

ZippyDSM

Would be quite amusing if they fined the ISP 10G for every pirate they could find...soon you'll have 2 parts of the same company suing each other!!

27.9.2009 10:39 #7

21Q

While I'd love to see this kind of back and forth battle play out in America, I don't think it would get passed as a bill. Well maybe. But at any rate I wonder how soon the first person is going to be kicked off.

27.9.2009 13:20 #8

ak472009

by my statistics more that 90% of people have somehow done some piracy, so it is not that only some peeps do privacy , most peeps have committed, but do not say out loud , so what are we going to do ban internet in the world to 90%.

27.9.2009 15:17 #9

KingPep

I think British Telecom is already, penalizing me, i used to get 6.9 meg,(supposed to be 8 meg) now i can only get 3.4 meg, for the some money.
Explain that if you can, it just weird. :o(

28.9.2009 13:33 #10

chris4160

Originally posted by KingPep: I think British Telecom is already, penalizing me, i used to get 6.9 meg,(supposed to be 8 meg) now i can only get 3.4 meg, for the some money.
Explain that if you can, it just weird. :o(You think that's bad, I'm suppose to be getting a 25 mb/s dl speed yet I only get 10mb/s... and I'm locked in for 24 months... damn telstra (my isp).

Btw ISP's already obtain the right to suspend and cancel any of there internet services (for the right reason).

2.10.2009 04:33 #11

Winddog

ISP's are the ones that will lose money. Pirates aren't spending money on music anyway.Too bad someone doesn't sue the ISP's for overcharging customers saying that they are getting more bandwith than they actually are. Thats a crime.

3.10.2009 19:02 #12

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