A few things that bother me with all this, even if everyone said ok this is a fantastic idea let's pay a fee and carry on with merry downloading till your heart is content.
This is the BPI who is making some money out of this, how long is it going to be before the movie, and software, and games industry jump on this bandwagon? Everyone is going to be wanting to make you have a license.
They should not expect people to pay more for crap they wouldnt pay for to begin with, that would be like a top premier league team being religated, and then charging more for tickets next season cos they cant afford to lose the money.
Secondly they are targetting "file sharers" if my understanding is correct? What's to stop everyone jumping over on to newsgroups where you dont have to "share" anything, and tell the bpi, isps go stick it where the sun dont shine. (and no i dont mean Scotland lol)
Also with news providers such as Giganews which offer ssl, surely then if you got a letter, you could bring a case against your ISP for breaching your privacy?
Forcing people into something they dont like or don't want to do, will only make them all rebel.
to: The Government, BPI - as max and paddy once said in an episode, If you play with feathers, you gonna get your arse tickled

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