Having installed a few hundred toilets - [This is not a fetish, I am a plumber], I would like to claim the publishing/royalties on the sound made each time the toilets have been flushed. Or do the BPI own the sound?

Steve, Cheltenham, U.K.

..."musicians who create the music don't seem to be bothered"

Sorry Matt in Rochester. It was Nirvana who started the ball rolling when they sued Napster (I think)

Steve, Cheltenham, U.K.

It is amazing how many comments here actually support breaking the law. Illegal downloads is stealing, no more arguments about that. Parents must teach their kids that and make sure they obey the laws, especially by setting good examples.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

another typical example of large multinational companies and rich and powerful having our government and the parliament in their pockets.
our politicians are there only to serve their masters,the rich and the powerful. would do anything to please them.

ebbi britt, valencia, spain

The music industry really has its head in the sand. The Undertones were great but Im not going to pay £6 for a CD that is 30 years old. As well as the latest hits, P2P sites have the Undertones back-catalogue, obscure Asian films and a wealth of other stuff that people would not otherwise buy.

geoff, spain,

The media industry misses the concept, and attempts to market like it is 1930 Tin Pan Alley Sheet Music Time- create a resonable creative package and make a fortune else go the way of powdered whigs - I actually BUY more CDs based on sampled dowmloads - better product makes better sales- beat spyin

Jess Wonderin, Los Angeles , USA

Proxy Servers, Pre-paid Internet, ftp, E-mail, wireless hotspots, internet radio ext… On top of all that, I can really see those already unprofitable ISP’s dropping their clients to save Hollywood a fist full of Dollars.

Philip, Deception Bay, Queensland, Australia

This type of system is so unjust - are Royal Mail now expected to inspect every item of post they handle? I pay my ISP for net access - not surveillance!

I encourage customers of the ISPs involved to react straight away by migrating to another ISP, and make sure the reason for doing so is known!

Peter Townsend, Stoke-on-Trent,

To Samantha Jones, who is worried about the legality of her downloads: I assure you, if you pay for a download from an established UK website, or use a TV service like ITV's or BBC's iPlayer, this is absolutely legal. Illegal downloads are more "underground" than the services you mentioned.

Steve Wright, Stoke-on-Trent,

So hip young kids will now drive around with laptops and download from unprotected wifi routers, while Mr. and Mrs. Teapot who own the routers will have no idea their connection is being misused until it gets shut off. But the kids will be gone to the next free connection.

Michael, Chicago, USA

I wish someone could explain it all to me being nearly 60 i'm totally confused,
If you pay for a download is that still allowed is a TV show (for which you have a licence) illegal. I know ITV have Catch up which is a great idea if you've missed an episode, is that now illegal? Help

Samantha Jones, Bucks, England

In reply to David Thurston comment about people losing their jobs. According to the financial statement published by the parent company Vivendi, Universal Music Group's revenue and earnings for the first quarter of 2008 were both up compared with the same period in 2007.

Matthew Wharton, Bath,

It always annoys me when people seem to think that they are justified in downloading music and films illegally. If someone goes into HMV and walks out with a CD without paying, then he's clearly a shoplifter. So why would downloading without paying not be considered stealing?

Geert, Ashford, UK

The system will always be beaten because the people who write file sharing software & the hackers are more intelligent than Gordon Brown and the BPI will ever be(Sorry Gordon is a bad example). It may take a while but soon enough the kids will learn about IP ADDRESS SPOOFING & ENCRYPTION techniques.

John, Swindon, UK

Meanwhile, those who don't care to be traced will simply borrow a CD or DVD from their local library, take it home, and copy it onto their own computers - computers not connected to the internet at all, if need be. This new act is pointless and futile. You cannot just legislate problems away.

Michael, Chicago, USA

The downloads should be free and legal after 5 years. Anyone who's going to buy a record will do so in that time - no-one's going to wait that long to save a few pounds..... and if someone's not otherwise going to buy, where's the harm?

Graham Rounce, London, UK

Behind schedule by 14 years but Britian was allways likely to go down this route. Which will also pretty much put paid to the idea of free wifi hotspots in Britain. After all who wants to be paying the bill for other people's carelessness?

D. Pickston, London, London

This is a clear example of how the Brown administration regards the fat cat businessmen in charge of the music industry as 'more equal' than the general public. This effectively undermines the core values of human rights and creates a legal 'double standard' in our society.

Joey Chan, Birmingham,

So they need to protect their copyright. Now if they obtain the copy right they
have the right ot milk it for the lifetime of the original copyright holder plus
70 years. So artist in 20ies live 50 years gives 120 years milking time.

Seen any music over 20 years old ?

Russ Moore, Gillingham, Kent

Get the government to make the streets safer, then maybe the kids will go out and not sit at the computer. Until then this will be a waste of time.

Julie, Skem, england

This is ridiculous. First of all, they'll have to monitor everybody's to see if there is any illegal file sharing. Then they'll have to act on it by sending out thousands of letters. How dare we defend thieves? Because thievery is the act of taking something from someone, not sharing *our* property.

Steven, Kent, UK

I will simply mask my IP address and carry on downloading. I wouldnt buy the music if it wasnt free, and as many people have said, most of th emusic I have already paid for when purchased in by now obsolete formats.

Matt, Napoli, Italy

The music industry can only blame itself when it comes to online piracy. They haven't embraced the internet, but instead kept to their old business models. I will also add that the way in which these people collect their information is flawed. A recent study showed that a printer was sent letters...

Daniel, Kettering, UK

Why doesn't the music industry encrypt its precious overpriced commodity?

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

This agreement basically asks parents to do the impossible {know what your children are doing whenever they are on the internet} so that people who make ridiculous amounts of money and enjoy extended copyright protection don't have to face up to changing times like the rest of us.

steven tye, orlando, usa

Boo Hoo! Lets make life in the UK even more Orwellian. Its not like kids would buy the CD's anyway. The producers and distributors make the lions share from sales, get rid of them, and let people buy direct from the musicians!
I am planning on emigrating some place less draconian anyway!

Barry Memhy, Birmingham, UK

The truth is that honest hard-working people employed within the music industry are losing their jobs. Universal Music recently made around 40 people redundant from their finance dept in Romford Essex, because of loses to their income, hard working honest people lose jobs due to illegal downloading

David Thurston, Hornchurch, England

I paid my royalty's when I bought the record, then again when I purchased the cassette tape. Why should I have to pay again for a digital format?
With films, I pay to see the movie on the big screen, then the VHS tape, then DVD and now Blue Ray. Bit greedy wanting me to pay royalty's 4 times.

Ron Eldridge, Grantham, UK

I have actually bought more CD's since I started "illegally" downloading music. I check the music out and if I like it I will buy their CD's.

John, Selby,

If the music industry doesn't want us to copy their music then it should stop ripping us off with cds that have a few good songs and a load of filler. They can also stop making us repurchase our music in different formats every few years or Digital Rights Management.

Luke, London, UK

Should the car manufacturer expect a royalty every time you go on the road in your own car? Of course not. Why then should the record industry be any different? Not only that, but why should they be able to victimise ordinary people so wickedly in order to protect their greedy ways?

Martin, Welwyn Garden City,

They should ban cd burners/dvd burners/usb sticks/memory cards/portabel harddrives/laptops/tap decks/bluetooth devices too. I'm sure the ISPs are saying yes to stop them whining!

Matthew, Bournemouth,

The model of music distribution operated by the big labels is obsolete. Let me pay the musicians/tv producers a few pennies each time I listen to a song/ or watch a show, and I'd consider it, but only if you -then- took away the license fee, monthly subscription fees for the cable and advert.

Jeff Clark, Surbiton, UK

Looks like the British Govt. is waking up to the effectiveness of the Chinese Govt and its policies.... monitor, restrict, control and fear...


Freedom? Meh, overrated.

Howard, Manchester,

"If it is illegal to download files why do such sites providing free downloading, such as BitTorrent, still exist?"

BitTorrent is not "a site", it is a transmission protocol. My company uses it for transmitting client project files. The only way for it not to "exist" would be to close the internet.

Alastair, Alicante, Spain

Easy solution! For each file successfully downloaded a file-sharer could pay a small fee into a central fund which in turn could be distributed as donations to political parties. This would then cease to be an issue ( Democracy in action... Bless! ).

Jay , Keynsham, UK

Well that's 6 ISPs that wont be getting my business...

tom, loughborough,

I was once signed to London Records with a big chart hit. For every £3.99 sale, the label got £2.93, and my 2 bandmates and I got 2p each. Now the stable doors are open, the labels want to keep their grip. Vote with your feet, change your isp.

Alastair, Alicante, Spain

For decades America has been wrongly accused of worldwide imperialism. But now a cultural imperialism has really arisen. The whole world has submitted to wicked copyright protection laws foolishly passed by the US government at the behest of record business lobbyists. Is file sharing piracy? No way.

Martin, Welwyn Garden City, England

In reply to Galine, Russia:

The technology used to share (eg. BitTorrent) is not the problem. It is a sound and very good way of sharing files. You assume that everything shared by BitTorrent is illegal.

Joe, Bath, UK

This is yet another way for the politicians to pretend they are doing something to earn their pay. Much easier than trying to find solutions for the serious issues we face... After all, if the kids are at home downloading stuff, they aren't out on the streets knifing each other or anyone else.

Amanda Hopkins, Rugby, U.K.

amazing how they find other things to tax and a very good money earner for the government

brian rice, halifax, uk

considering a CD in the UK and itunes music costs twice what it does elsewhere (for god knows what reason) i don't feel guilty in the slightest ripping the music industry off as they do the same to me.

Alex, london, england

The presumption is that those illegally downloading music will go and pay for it. Many of those who obtain illegally copies of films, music etc. do so because they can't afford to pay for it legally.

luke neave, bristol, england

Bands can earn money by playing concerts. Why should we have to pay for their demo CDs/downloads for these concerts? The government needs to change tack and side with the consumer. It is time to overturn archaic property laws and stop turning the public into criminals to please a greedy industry.

David Delaney, Eastbourne, UK

Which one of these companies will Calamity Brown suddely become a Non-Exec Director of when he's been booted out next year?

The surveillance society is so unbelievably represive it's untrue...

Tim, Bristol,

The music & film industry have brought this problem on themselves by being so greedy in the first place. Serves them right. It is their problem not a Government problem. The industry can sort it out themselves instantly by charging reasonable prices.

Reg Tripp, Alton,

I don't know what's more laughable in this story. Blaming the parents for something so pathetically unimportant in the grand scheme of things, the restriction of their internet as a result, the backward looking notion of sharing files being considered stealing or the police state monitoring.

James Cullup, Oxford,

All this will do is put a dint in public torrent downloads, ISP's need to start monitoring the AMOUNT people download not just the actual filenames. If someone is downloading > 3gb using SSL encrypted NNTP then you can bet your next months salary that whatever they're getting isn't strictly legal.

Sean, Derry,

Copyright for originators is reasonably fair.

The thing is that I go to work and perform (a job), that work continues earning my employer revenue for years. I don't expect to get more than a day's pay for a day's work.

Come to think of it perhaps I should demand that my employers pay me royalties?

J D S, Cardiff, UK

I buy plenty of CD's, from the artists i love or when theres a nice interesting packaging option. I download other stuff to check it out. The stuff i download i'd rarely buy anyway. Periodically i'll pick up on a new artist and start buying their stuff.

Gene, Armagh,

I am confused - for some silly reason, I thought that the Internet grew from a file-sharing system which Scientists developed years ago, to promote the sharing of knowledge.

If downloads reduce ACTUAL purchases, then that is a concern. But what PROOF does Ofcom and the ISPs have this happens ?

Peter Hartley, Guildford, UK

I download music, enjoy it and see what it is all about, if I like it I will go out and buy it, If I don't then I won't.

The music industry is actually making money from me downloading, I wish I could put itunes on my expenses like the government... 3 Strikes and your out!

Adam Webb, MK, UK

Globalisation had an awful effect on the rag trade in Britain but the politicians just told the average citizen to up skill and move on. No protection for the many industries that became redundant as jobs migrated to low paid economies. So goes the music industry, might have to work for a living!!

John, Melbourne , Australia

So we're going to let the BPI police the internet? Huge conflict of interest isn't it? Might as well let them be judge and jury as well.

Dylan Hughes, Bude, UK

So the music/film/tv industries really believe that they can force users into buying. Better prices, less restrictions and better music/films make people buy things.
Next step, give government the rights to snoop through your computer, mail, phone - move with the times - keep the Internet FREE(ish)

John Bond, Manchester, UK

Our wonderful dictator Labour government, who are just desperate to lose voters, once more batter the very people who voted them in with some rubbish new law.

Roll on the next general election.

We will have no labour MP's then. Not one will be left.

They will ALL be on job seeker allowance

Francis, Birmingham, England

The sad thing is i download music that i would not normally consider buying or perhaps not take a chance on, then if it is really good i tend to buy the cd to have the higher quality hard copy. there is no way i could pay for all the cd's that i'd want, limiting access to art is all it is

tim, london,

I'm suprised the ISP's are going to act as the BPI's private policy force,
Any technical sanctions put in place will ALWAYS be defeated by some clever hacker - its easy to hide one's IP address.
The music industry must embrace a new business model in order to persuded downloaders to buy legit'

Scotty, London,

Monitoring, blacklisting, punishing, curtailing, reducing, tough sanctions, sending a message, making an example of... 'Tough on listening to music and tough on the causes of listening to music!'

Those bloody parents!

Baroness who?

Errant consumers...

Slap me out of this.

Ronnie , Bucharest, Romania

BIG BROTHER!
Is the government going to make sure all the musicians who have been ripped off by record company greed over the years, will be re-embursed?

Dave Bridge, Southport, UK

It requires a court order to interfere with post and the internet is modern post. Allowing private business to use the law to increase profit is dangerous and should be resisted by all. The music industry, has, and does rip off individuals with impunity now the law will allow it to continue to do so

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

How do you turn 6 of the UK's largest ISP's into 6 of the UK's smallest IPS's ? See above for details .

Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,

Well said Alex. It's nice to see i'm not alone in my opinions.

Downloading illegally is the same as sneaking into the cinema without paying, running out of a restaurant without paying etc. It's unjust and i'm glad measures (however futile) are being taken.

Pete, London,

The problem with music and software is that companies charge too much. People rather have original copies of music and software but sorry.....they aren't going to pay 15 pounds for a CD and certainly not going to pay hundreds of pounds for an operating system.

Kris, Bristol,

If only music was sold online at a REASONABLE price, they could probably cut the illegal download problem in half overnight. The legal sites are a rip-off. Artists probably get a few pence from each download - how much is clear profit? Also - people will just find others ways to illegally share..

Len, Reading,

The next thing that will happen is that our adult content will be checked and monitored. Thanks government, first you spoil driving by tax then you ruin my sex life.

James, Dundee, Scotland

This is incredible. The music industry is simply too lazy to develop technical barriers and now misuses a government to correct its failures. I do believe that copyright abuse should be punished, although before court and not via a bold evasion of the correct legal proceedings.

Alexandra, Frankfurt, Germany

Phil, When did you last pay £15 for a cd? I've bought 8 this month on Amazon. Only one cost £9. Most were £5. 2 were £3. Copyright is a contract between the originator and the consumer. During the copyright life the originator can legally require payment. Afterwards it is free to the consumer.

Charles Law, London,

Lets see these really brave people at Nu-Labour tackle the Chinese in piracy.
In China you can buy, from a legally operated shop, DVD's and CD's for 1usd per disc.
Therefore a boxed set of say 24 costs 6usd.

This monitoring of our internet connections is disgraceful we live a in police state.

Brian, Oxford, UK

Now if only the government would use this 3-strike rule with regards to crime!

Margot, Fife,

Appalling new direction. We condemn China and their imposition of restrictions on the internet then the nanny state once again does a U-turn. This current Labour government is vile and oppressive and the sooner the nation has the opportunity to vote them out the bette

Steven G, Durham,

So the govt is going to tell ISP's to monitor what people send over the web. Is the next stage to get the highways agency to police what lorries are carrying. I pay for a connection to the internet, not to have my use of that connection monitored by ISP being bullied by a govt owned by business.

Steve, UK, UK

Do adults not download illegally then?

judith, Walton on the Hill, Surrey

the bpi continue their double standards and want payment twice, likewise the movie industry
quinn

quinn morgan, letchworth, uk

Let's be realistic about this. The only way to stop piracy is to make it impossible or at least extremely difficult for people to copy. It can be done. I have a software program produced in the UK which can only be used by registered users. Don't get tough, get smart.

Les H, Zhangzhou, China

Matt in Rochester-

Respectfully, How dare you defend thieves? (illegal downlaoders), it's not the Music Industry alone that suffers, but honest musicians,

It's amazing how so many comments tend towards 'Lets steal more!, they can't stop us'

So sad.

Theft is theft.

Alex, London,

Ironically, parents whose children commit murders and other violent crimes, run in gangs, stay outside and drink until the morning, are not punished in any way for their children's behaviour.

This society is a joke!

Lori, toronto, Canada

Who said we don't live in a police-state? Monitoring of your internet activity is the same as tapping your phone-line. Regardless of government legislation, any ISP who reduces or filters the service they provide will lose custom, they also cannot charge the same for providing an inferior service.

Les, Southport, England.

The sums of money quoted by the industry as having been "lost" because of illegal downloads seem to assume that if the illegal downloads had not been made, the downloader would actually have paid the asking price for the music/movie/software in question. This seems to be a very dubious assumption.

Michael Spooner, Kangaroo Point, Australia

From a CD costing for example 15 pounds, musicians receive a few pennies. The record companies make 3 pounds profit. Most musicians will tell you that the record companies are ripping off the musicians then claiming copyright is needed to pay the musician.

phil, Nottingham,

The 5 companies that initially dominated the industry when music recording started 75 years ago, own 80% of the market today. Copyright is an artifical invention started by the govt around 1900. The only beneficiary of the copyright system is the big 5 music companies & everybody else is worse off.

phil, Nottingham,

If it is illegal to download files why do such sites providing free downloading, such as BitTorrent, still exist? Wouldn't it be simplier to control these sites?

Galine, Russia,

My kids are now grown-up, but it would have been nigh on impossible in earlier years for me to have monitored by son's downloads; he was our IT guru from age 10 (1992), and the constant battle required would have been very damaging to all. He knew my views, had his own.

Faustino, Brisbane, Australia

People should just stop using the internet and watch the ISPs come back begging.

Tim, Toronto,

The internet is the future of the world and file sharing is here to stay. I doubt Baroness Vadera can even log on to the Times online site. Our economy is near recession, no-one cares about the wealth of already rich music bosses, no matter how much they lobby our democratically elected politicians

James, London,

It might have worked 10 years ago, but today you simply use anonymous proxies and encrypted files, and this whole scheme falls flat on its face. I just hope my income tax isn't paying for a penny of this.

Nick, Woking, UK

Nice to see the government is putting together another blacklistign system - where ordianary people can be punished without the protection of the courts.

John, Twickenham,

Further evidence of Zanu-Labour progressing the UK to dictatorship! The worst part is that between BT, Tiscali, BSkyB & Carphone Warehouse most of the ISP's in the UK are covered in this control freak agreement. Those Big 4 own most of the other providers, so a good 75% of the UK is at threat here!

Jonathan Sklan-Willis, Manchester, England

I hope that everybody with internet access downloads as many songs as they can and then never pays for a CD/ film ever again. I have downloaded maybe 50 songs over the last 5 years. How dare governments dictate to us on behalf of a dying music industry.

Dave, Bromley,

To me, internet file sharing is the same as borrowing a CD off a friend and putting it on your computer. I wouldn't be surprised if the music industry began curbing CD borrowing too. Interesting how the actual musicians who create the music don't seem to be bothered by people sharing their music.

Matt, Rochester, UK