If you happen to live in the UK and happen to use Virgin Media, BT, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, or Tiscali; then at some point you may be receiving a warning letter from your ISP saying that you’ve been making illegal downloads, and threatening to suspend or possibly terminate your internet service.

These ISPs are on a three-month trial scheme, instructed by the British government, clamping down on pirating software and music, and notifying suspected repeat offenders that their actions are under scrutiny.

It’s still a mystery exactly which people these “suspected repeat offenders” could be: No doubt the ones they’ll watch are people who use P2P: So if you use LimeWire, BearShare, or any of the other P2P software for whatever reason then watch out. You don’t really imagine that they’re actually going to monitor traffic do you? That would use huge resources and cost millions – A simple P2P signature will probably activate a printer to dispatch a letter to you automatically; guilty or not.

There are currently no plans of disconnecting those who persist. The ISPs are seeking a unified code of conduct on what to do with those who continue to do so in talks with Ofcom; the UK Telecoms Regulator. One of the proposed options is to disconnect someone after sending them 3 of these warning letters. My question is: Where’s the proof? You can’t punish someone on suspicion. Just imagine if the law behaved like that: Half of the world’s population would be in jail.

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UK business secretary John Hutton believes that this is an “intelligent approach”. The ISPs agreed to this trial following the warning from the UK government that it would impose legislation if they didn’t do something to discourage illegal filesharing. If the powers that be imagine for a second that this has any relationship whatsoever with intelligence then I think the UK Govt. should have a motion drafted against it for having none.

It is believed that six million people in the UK are involved in such activities. If they know this then why don’t they just issue six million warnings straight away? It would be so much easier and consume far less resources. Also I’m just wondering: What if you happen to be an innocent party who’s never done an illegal download in their life; and you get one of these letters – Then what? Do you phone the ISP and argue your case? I doubt they’ll even listen: You’re guilty because a computer decided that you should be sent a letter – End of story. No doubt after letter 1 you’ll be put on a “watch list”, and a computer will have no hesitation in deciding that you should receive letter No.2. Use your imagination from this point onwards.

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Addendum 01.08.08

It appears that something positive is happening about this matter, and that once again the fascist UK goverment has introduced an unworkable proposal that won’t stand up to European Law.

For more on this subject go here.

It won’t be long before sophisticated advanced computers are scrutinising your every move online – Just you wait and see if I’m not right.

As for the Carphone Warehouse; well it’s hardly “Your phone your way” is it?

More like “our service, our rules”.