UK ISP Virgin Media, in a joint partnership with the British
Phonographic Industry (BPI), has thus far sent out 800 letters to file sharers
to inform them of the consequences should they continue. Packaged in envelopes
that said, “Important: If you don’t read this, your broadband could be disconnected,”
the letters seeks to dissuade users from file-sharing under the threat of
losing their internet accounts.
Luckily for them, however, Virgin doesn’t seem
to want to follow through.
The wording of the letter is a mistake, says Virgin, and it plans to review
the letters sometime in August. Speaking
with BBC Radio’s Newsbeat, a Virgin representative said that
there was “absolutely no possibility” they would disconnect accounts that the
BPI has linked to filesharing.
“It is important to let our customers know that their accounts have been
used in a certain way but we are happy to accept it may not be the account
holder that's involved,” said Virgin representative Asam Ahmad.
“It could be someone else in the family or someone living in a shared house.
It could even be someone stealing WiFi. We are not making any form of
accusation.”
Customers’ responses have been far from warm -- many have accused the BPI’s
investigations of being inaccurate, and others have indicated that they are not
happy with being ratted out.
“I suppose it is possible that someone accessed our wireless network from
outside the flat but, beyond that, it definitely wasn't one of us,” said one of
the recipients. “The campaign is doomed to fail. Virgin will lose a lot of
customers over this because people don't like to be accused of stealing music.”
The BPI says it is serious enough to take the matter to court, and the UK
government has set a deadline of next spring for ISPs and music companies to
reach an accord before it steps in.