British parents to be punished for children's net piracy

In a move to combat net piracy, British Government officials have said that they are planning to blacklist users who download copyrighted content from the net.

Six major Internet service providers have agreed to take part in a Government initiative to curb on illegal downloading of music and films in Britain. As part of the plan, the ISPs will send warning letters to those households suspected of illegal file sharing. If the user ignores the warning the Internet service providers can block those illegal downloading sites and slow down the broadband Internet connection to prevent downloading. Some estimates put the number of illegal downloaders in Britain as high as six million with most of them being children and teenagers. British daily Times reports

Service providers will send warning letters to thousands of homes across the UK where illegal downloading has been detected, telling them that they are being monitored. It may be the first time parents know that their children are breaking the law. An academic survey of music ownership showed that iPods or digital music players owned by teenagers and students contained 842 illegally copied songs each on average.

John Hutton, the Business Secretary said that the move will scare many people and they themselves will stop downloading illegal content. But, he warned to bring a legislation next year to stop piracy if the above step fails.

This is an intelligent approach to tackling unlawful file-sharing. It tells consumers what they can do, rather than just what they can't.

Music companies are asked to provide legal means of downloading music to Internet users.But many consumer groups opposed the Government move saying that music companies have failed to modernize to keep pace with technology.