The ones ripping off the artists aren't the music downloaders but the record companies themselves. They also make out that copying music is a new thing, it's been happening since the invention of the tape recorded.

If they do as good a job as the RIAA in the US then most of the people they cut off will not be illegal downloaders :o

Suing or cutting off your prospect customers never makes business sense. Attempting to cut off downloaders will not work as alternative anonymous methods will be quickly adopted.

The music and film industries will eventually come to their senses and come up with business models which encourage users to pay for the content (maybe even on a flat rate east as much as your like basis) but in the meantime cutting people's internet off can only do great harm and probably infringes on peoples rights.

But surely some measures have to be made. People wouldn't be sympathetic if it was retail theft...

SO THEN, ANOTHER NOTCH IN THE BEDPOST OF THE LIBERTY RAPERS!!!

HOW THE HELL WOULD ANYONE KNOW IF I WAS DOWNLOADING SOME FILES FROM A FRIEND (WHICH IS SOMETHING I ACTUALLY DO.... QUITE A LOT) AS OPPOSED TO DOWNLOADING THE NEWEST ALBUM FROM DIZZY IDIOT OR WHOEVER IS IN THE CHARTS THESE DAYS.

i DON'T EVEN LISTEN TO THE TRIPE THAT IS COMMERCIALISED AND SOLD FOR PROFIT ANYWAY, IT ISN'T EVEN MUSIC. REGARDLESS OF WHAT I DO ON THE NET, THIS IS A MASSIVE INVASION OF PRIVACY AND LIBERTIES AND SHOULD BE REVERSED STRAIGHT AWAY.... BUT IT WON'T BECAUSE WE HAVE NO SAY WHATSOEVER AS TO WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS COUNTRY ANYMORE.

DOWN WITH THE NEW WORLD ORDER..... UP THE RESISTANCE HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ;-)

...this help? Or will people just get round new laws like they have got round the current ones?

With the increase of speed in mobile broadband what is stopping me from going out buying a pay as you go dongle downloading what i want then when i get banned just go and buy another pay as you go Sim card for a couple of quid they haven't thought this one out as i could get around it already

I think the real issue here isn't that illegal pirates will be shut down but the validity and accuracy of the measures that will be used to identify them in the first place......to which of course none of us have given consent. I run my own business and obviously have to pass data back and forth via various means very regularly, the very idea that "big brother" is watching is something straight out of a paranoid conspiracies handbook not the stuff that new legislation should be made of.
On another note as has been mentioned by others avoiding any given ban is far to easy to be effective for the home user, but my concern comes from the idea that no doubt some pirates out there will either clone or ghost there ip's to hide behind someone else which could be devastating.
To me it sounds like Mandelson went and got his advice from PC World......

Who owns the data/software? Companies claim 100% ownership of software, however they are not the original author. They bought the rights from another body, who also falsely claimed the rights. The true title of ownership & the concepts go back to the individuals, institutions & governments who originated them decades ago. It is criminally dishonest act to claim title to other peoples property. Rich businesses buy companies to hamper the development of competitive software, as in the case of Sun & Oracle with MySql & zfs. The EEC will not permit this. The USA permits it because the copyright theft is by a USA company & is an arm of state power. Illegally monopolising & manipulating the market & disconnecting file-sharers who reject this fraudulent act is wrong. Beware of upgrades that destroy your apps and O/S that don't have valid licenses XP SP3 & poss. Windows 7 may destroy your s/w.. "Upgrades" that spew advertising and slow your PC are bad too. Beware of operating system upgrades that will kill your license!

Personally, I'm disappointed with this legislation as it goes completely against the suggestions made by the governments own Digital Britain report.

As soon as Mandelson goes on a dirty weekend with David Geffen, the government performed a u-turn and introduced harsh new measures.

Who let that snake back in to government?

This stinks. The Internet was created to give freedom of access to everyone anywhere in the world. If companies or businesses feel that they are being exploited in some way (oh the irony) they should do something about it but if a government starts to say who can do what and impose restrictions then that is all wrong and smacks of a BIG BROTHER move by the government to control the people. Keep the web free from government control or loose it. It's as simple as that.

How can the 'conviction' of an illegal downloader be safe when internet connections are often used by sharers (i.e. the child shoplifts - so we punish the parent?) or wireless connections can be hi-jacked. But a big issue that will eventually impact the funding & quality of content - Needs more thought.

Once again the response is to 'throw another law at the problem' with the hope that one day something will work. Are the government the only ones who haven't realised that this isn't working. People speed - create speed cameras (they still speed), people might take a picture of someone else's child at a nativity - ban cameras at 'any' event - so now no-one can record memories of their children growing up (but apparently paedophiles still seem able to manage it - just not normal people!). The next one they have on the menu is gps in cars (so obvious next step from that - 'automatically' issue speeding tickets if car exceeds limit). Soon we won't be able to have cars - they're dangerous (no, sorry, that won't happen - they make way too much money from road tax/tax on fuel/insurance tax etc). Government - listen, stop it, your laws are simply stopping normal people (your voters) going about their normal lives. Real criminals have, and always will find ways around these laws, you're only affecting innocent citizens!

Something has to be done about on-line theft, if you've got a genuine suggestion for an alterntative I'd be keen to hear it. I love all the comments suggesting that the music and film industries simply need to "come up with new business models" - I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on what business model could really complete with free, unlimited access to music and films stolen from the content creaters. There are millions of music tracks ligimately available from over 50 on-line businesses in the UK with tracks costing from a few pence, but still 95% of music downloads are illegal via file sharing. Something like 50% of internet bandwidth is down to illegal file sharing, all internet users suffer from congestion and slow connections as a result of this traffic. Sweden recently introduced a law on internet piracy and over night internet bandwidth usage fell by 40%. It just goes to show how significant this issue is. It's a tough subject and whatever is done about it someone will be unhappy, but something does have to be done. It's only a shame it's taken so long as too many people have got so used to free access they now consider it some sort of civil right.

Anthony, how about opening up 300 new state of the art neighborhood live venues up and down the country for entertainment and then use free recordings published freely to get people to come to the venues to enjoy the live experience. Then use state of the art cross media technology at different levels to get some subscription income in. Hmmm sounds familiar! The venues could offer different experiences for different age groups and social mixes. Problem I guess is that too much shareholder capital is tied up and not accessible for investment. It is not as if nobody could see this coming from the early days of cheap cassette tape recorders!