INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs) AND LAWS ABOUT
FILE-SHARING
BY
OLUBUKUNOLA AROBIEKE
MA MEDIA PRODUCTION
M36CMC – INFORMATION SOCIETIES
The full form of ISP is ‘Internet Service Provider’. ISP is a form of business organisation that sells access to Internet to consumers. Initially most ISP organisations were run by telephone companies.
Today, ISP services can be started by an individual who has sufficient funds and expertise. Apart from providing Internet access through a variety of technologies such as dial-up and DSL, they can also provide other services such as Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting and collocation.
An ISP is also sometimes referred to as an IAP (Internet access provider). ISP is sometimes used as an abbreviation for Independent Service Provider to distinguish a service provider that is an independent, separate company from a telephone company.
ISPs use a wide range of technologies to allow consumers to connect to their network. For example, for home consumers the most common services available are dial-up, DSL, broadband wireless access, cable modem and ISDN. Customers who have higher or more demanding requirements are connected to DSL, Ethernet, Metro Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet internet lines depending upon their usage and speed requirement.
The government is to establish a legislation forcing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to gather information on customers engaging in illegal file-sharing, and forcing them to contact repeat offenders warning them that such behaviour is against the law.
As part of an interim report, Digital Britain, the proposed legislation requested ISPs to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities) and to be made available to rights-holders together with personal details on receipt of a court order.
The government said that it would soon begin consultation on the proposed new law.
The new law is expected to provide a good evidence base, making it significantly easier for right-holders to take targeted legal action against the most significant infringers.
The law would create a code on unlawful file-sharing which ISPs would have to sign, and whose enforcement would be carried out by media and telecoms regulators.
The government would also create new rights agency, which would gather together content creators in different disciplines and encourage them to find ways to prevent piracy and ways to make the legal use of their content more attractive. It would involve creators from the worlds of music, film, television, computer games and software.
The report further explained that the Digital Britain group would look into whether public subsidies should be used to help extend next-generation broadband networks, and that the government was committed to ensuring that broadband penetration reached the whole of the United Kingdom by 2012.
References
Masons, P. (2009) Law Will Force ISPs to Pass File-Sharing
Data to Record Labels [online]available from
< http://www.out-law.com/page-9750>
[17 February 2009]
Techtarget (2006) What is ISP? [online] available from
< http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/s
Definition/0,,sid8_gci214028,00.html>
[17 February 2009]
