well the RIAA are stepping up on there action against p2p music sharing by using advertising to warn people and especially parents of children who download/share illegal files

the header of the advertisement says

"Next time you or your kids 'share' music on the Internet, you may also want to download a list of attorneys,"

the RIAA says downloading music is basically shoplifting

more in the link below

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/interne...eut/index.html

I'm pretty sure that any UK/euro isp cannot be forced to give info because of the human rights act they are not allowed to give out personal identifiable information although ntl may do this as they are a yank company

they do and we will be affected by this in due time.................

they do what?
edit:-k got u now, do u think then as under EU law that they are not allowed to reveal this info ntl users affected could raise a class action in the US or EU equivalent

they have handed details to foreign compaines outside of the EU before on piracy issues

the head of the morpheus p2p program which cant be sued due to a recent ruling is to lobby congress over the RIAA plans to sue individuals

more below

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3025312.stm

if we don't make a stand on this one now these mega corporations will roll over us, i personally have a have nearly 500 mp3's but i also have 600 Cd's at last count that roughly 9500 songs, maybe if we all start informing local MP's etc that may have some effect(probably not) but anything we can do has got to be worth it right?

edit:-grrr note need grammar and spell checker

I think music companies, etc, should loose copyright in any material that they don't make available for purchase (at reasonable cost).

In other words, if I can't go in a shop and buy Albumn A by Artist B, having to order it's ok, because they've deleted it from their catalogue, then they should be forced to make it freely available on the 'net.

That'd teach 'em to abuse copyright.

How do the RIAA plan on finding what copywrited material you have on your computer?
Maybe this has something to do with it;
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30003.html

The record companies are absolutly pathetic. All thats going to happen is that they will end up suing some teenager who downloads a few songs for £90,000 and missing the people who produce disks and sell them for a living. The thing is, i download a song if i like it (e.g on the radio), im not going to buy a whole album of even pay £5 on a single for 1 song. The company isnt losing anything, as i wouldnt have bought it anyway:)

Trying to ban firewalls!:eek: The whole internet would come to a complete standstill, definatly.

i agree with that one, i've been trawling through various online music shops and they can't get me the cd's i want, even P2P and usenet was fruitless.

if your tastes are off mainstream and are looking for an older cd prepair for a long and unrewarding search.

If NTL did this they would be in breach of EU law, the fact they are an american owned comapny doesnt matter, they must trade within the laws of the countries they operate in.

As for the rest of the debate, all thats going to happen is that people will find more ways to share music etc. Look at the whole debacle over napster, what did it do? it created a bigger interest in filesharing because it hit headline news.
Also I am sure that it isnt technically illegal to donwload these files, its a case of having them available for download thats illegal.

There wasnt this much hassle over blank tapes, there was some but nothing like this, if the price was brought down sales would almost certainly go up. There is no way I would pay £16 and over for an album that I might not like.

IMHO....

p2p is fine if the films / music is of a 'lesser' quality than the DVD / CD. That way people can download and 'sample' new tracks / films, but if they actually like / want the film / track, they can purchase it legitimatley and have a decent copy.

Example... If I download the latest Matrix movie and the whole film is about 300MB, it's fair to say that it is LOW quality. I can then view the film, see if it's my kind of thing and then either go to the pictures or buy the DVD when released.
Having the low quality film would only make me want to buy the film more!

Trouble is, there's too many films / tracks that are of a decent enough quality to stop people buying the legitimate DVD / CD.

As for 'banning' P2P, what a laugh! Anyone remember Napster? Remember when they said it would close and end P2P piracy overnight??

I can't help but think this has all gone off track :confused:

Surely we're all agreed that music / software piracy is illegal right? Whilst the net is a difficult place to police, copyright owners are going to want to prevent people from sharing their material with everyone else... It wouldn't be too difficult, using software similar to that of Kazaa, to identify Kazaa subscribers and use the various search tools to view what files people are offering for download. If legal action then needs to be taken against the person offering the files, then the ISPs will be obliged to provide details of the individual in question... simple.... same as any other online crime, there's no hiding behind your ISP, whoever they are, they are certainly not your friend when these matters arise!! :spin: