I can’t condone piracy, but each step like this to curb it is one step closer to a government/corporate controlled internet. Carry on like this and you will only be able to see the news that they want you to see, personal websites and smaller concerns will disappear as only corporations will be able to afford the inevitable fees that will have to be imposed so the ISPs can enforce these things. The internet will end up like your cable TV package, with only the channels you paid for.
If the Music/Movie/Games industries think they are loosing out to piracy then they should try and convince us to buy rather than wasting money targeting those who don’t. Would people in the UK download so many TV shows if they were not shown weeks later than in the US[1]? Would people download so many films if online rentals were not so absurdly overpriced[2]? Governments should not be helping failing business models, and if (as they claim), they are loosing billions to piracy each year, then they are failing.
In the same week Ubisoft have announced that their controversial “always on” DRM has been a huge success, drastically cutting the number of pirate copies downloaded. I suspect it has also drastically cut the number of legitimate sales as well, I for one have not bought an Ubisoft game since they started that system, but they are keeping these figures quiet.
The current economic model does not work with digital items and until the publishers and record companies realise that and change their ways piracy is going to be a reality, the question is will they realise it before or after they have convinced[3] governments to step in and lock down the internet just so they can make a bit more money?
[1] and often not shown on terrestrial TV at all in the UK, sometimes even becoming a sky exclusive after being on regular TV for the first two seasons. Lost ( after series 3 ), Stargate SG-1 ( after series 8 ) Stargate Atlantis ( after series 1 ) are a few that spring to mind.
[2] and often more poorly encoded than pirate copies anyway.
[3] how they do the convincing is another matter.
Gaming and Tech Network 