There’s been a lot of buzz about a story The London Times ran this morning under the headline Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads, which also appeared on the BBC website under the even more alarming headline Illegal downloaders ‘face UK ban Time to get a couple of things straight.

The Times says people who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week. Actually, this story is complete balderdash. But the fact that this nutty proposal is getting anywhere at all illustrates how ignorant the powers that be are about downloading.

Let’s get a couple of things straight

1. This proposal was a draft consultation green paper, defined as proposal without any commitment to action. The government receives many of these on a daily basis. They are like junk mail at Number 10 Downing Street. The Prime Minister’s toilet paper is more important than most green papers, and both are usually filed in the same place.

2. This proposal is totally and completely unworkable in the real world. ISPs will not accept liability for the contents of packets (nor should they), and it would be impossible for them to open and check if every single download and upload was legal or not without the entire Internet grinding to halt. This isn’t in the best interests of the government, the ISPs or the voters. Banning customers and exposing yourself to billions in liability isn’t a good business strategy. Criminalizing six million citizens and inconveniencing the rest is not a vote winner.

3. It would be impossible to tell the difference between illegal downloading and legal activities such as downloading software patches, using torrents to share stuff legally, playing online video games, using VoIP, photo sharing, telecommuting, and many others. The resistance from the private sector would be as strong as it would from the general public. Read the rest of this entry »