A recent survey conducted by ISPreview.co.uk threw up surprising results with only one in five broadband customers supporting imposition of harsher restrictions on illegal P2P (peer-to-peer) activity.
A look at the survey spanning 472 respondents shows
Nearly 21% of the respondents were of the view that all websites hosting links to illegal downloads should be blocked or the maximum speed at which P2P services operate should be restricted. Almost 15% favoured restricting the users’ overall broadband speed as a punishment, while 26.9% agreed that there was a need for more aggressive warning letters.
If at all it is possible to arrive at a consensus on the most suitable punishment, enlisting the UK broadband providers to execute it is likely to be an uphill task, since they argue that it is not their role to police the Internet.
Earlier, the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) washed their hands off the P2P problem by stating that they had no power to tackle illegal downloading which they consider akin to the post office being asked to open every envelope. The statement was in response to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report just over a month ago which stated the intention to make it a legal requirement for all UK ISPs to more proactively caution customers suspected of illegal downloading.
