The envelope containing a letter warning subscribers that their
account was being used for illegal file-sharing was printed with
the words "Important. If you don't read this, your broadband could
be disconnected".
A Virgin Media spokeswoman told OUT-LAW that the message was a
mistake.
"We are not accusing our customers of doing anything, we are
alerting them to the fact that illegal file sharing has been
tracked to their account. This could have been someone else in the
house or an unsecured wireless network. This is an education
campaign," she said.
The company used information provided by music rights holders'
group the BPI to identify accounts which may have been used for
copyright-infringing file sharing. The spokeswoman said, though,
that no names or addresses were passed to the BPI and that it had
been responsible for the envelope, a mistake that it was
"rectifying immediately".
France is implementing a policy of forcing ISPs to disconnect
copyright infringing users after three warnings and the UK
Government has expressed its intention to legislate along similar
lines if ISPs and content owners cannot agree a way of clamping
down on infringement.
Virgin is the UK's third biggest ISP and the first to co-operate
with the BPI on the sending of letters to people whose accounts
have allegedly been used for illegal file-sharing.
Virgin claims that the letters are merely intended to educate
subscribers about alleged use of their accounts so that they can
find out what the source of illegal file-sharing might be.
The BPI, though, has said that it wants ISPs to begin a campaign
of suspensions. Chief executive Geoff Taylor said in a statement
last month that the BPI wanted ISPs to act.
"We want all ISPs to implement a simple, non-technological
solution which involves no spying on their customers or invasions
of privacy. We call it three steps," he said. "We collect and pass
on to the ISP publicly available information about their customers'
illegal filesharing, and ask them to send advisory letters as
outlined above. The possibility of account suspension, and the
ultimate sanction of contract cancellation, should follow for those
customers who choose not to take the advice."
Content producing companies and producers' representative bodies
have long argued that ISPs make money from piracy by charging fees
for internet access that is then used to pirate their content.
ISPs in turn have argued that they have no role in what a user
does with an internet connection just as a postal service has no
role in monitoring or governing what a letter or package
contains.
Editor's note, 07/07/2008: This story has
been amended. It previously suggested that Virgin Media had shared
information with the BPI. Virgin Media pointed out that they only
receive information and don't give it out. We apologise for the
error.
