Download crackdown doomed to failure

This week it emerged that Lord Carter is considering imposing a tax on internet service providers (ISPs) to compensate record and film companies for their losses from illegal downloads. The mooted move follows estimates from leading figures in the entertainment industry that the sector stands to lose some £1 billion over the next five years as a direct result of piracy.

However, this isn’t really what music biz head honchos would really like to see happen. Ideally they’d like for the UK to adopt a zero tolerance approach to downloaders akin to that being piloted across the Channel. This sees illegal file sharers being banned by ISPs after they have been caught three times.

I’m not sure either approach is workable. The banning order certainly represents a weighty sentence. But how far this will act as a deterrent is debatable. After all, with millions of people to police, users are acutely aware that it’s going to be a devil’s own task to keep up with the sheer volume of downloads being completed. Within no time, I'd venture, it’ll be business as usual.

Meanwhile, the notion of a tax on broadband providers is equally problematic. But the sticking point here isn't so much that this is flawed as a plan so much as the timing is all wrong. Should Lord Carter introduce this it would pile financial pressure onto ISPs at a time when the crunch means that revenues are already likely to be diminished. This in turn, would jeopardise their support for his programme of bringing broadband to every citizen in every region of the UK. There's your rock, Sir, and there's your hard place.

I’ve no idea how the problem of illegal downloading can ultimately be solved. But in the form of Spotify, which allows unlimited access to a vast library of tracks in exchange for having to sit through some ad spots, it shows that creative solutions are out there. Hope springs eternal.