Big Virgin Media story for you this morning. The cable TV and net company have fixed my set top box so it doesn't take 40 minutes to reboot if and when it crashes, which it does from time to time. Having missed a whole episode of 'Skins' because of the "40 minute to reboot" scandal, this has come as a great relief for all in South East London.
Elsewhere in Virgin Media news, in their capacity as an internet service provider the web company has announced it is collaborating with record label trade body the BPI to educate broadband users about the rights and wrongs of accessing music online. Virgin will send letters to any customers who the BPI reckon are guilty of accessing illegal sources of music, or who make music available to others illegally. One letter will come from the BPI, and another from Virgin, though both will be mailed by the cable company so the record label trade body will not know the name and address of the naughty file sharers (they themselves only being able to identify the IP addresses where the file sharing takes place).
The campaign is based on the idea that many of Virgin Media's customers may not be aware that family members are using their net connection to illegally share music, or of the legal or technical implications (risk of Spyware etc) of sharing music online.
A spokesman for Virgin told CMU last night: "Virgin Media's fibre optic broadband is a great platform for people who want to download lots of music online. But we want them to do so without infringing the rights of musicians and music companies. This campaign is about helping our customers understand how they can do this and get the best out of the internet".
BPI top man Geoff Taylor told us: "Education is absolutely key to reducing the extent of illegal downloading, and we are pleased to be working with Virgin Media on this campaign. We believe that new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued. That will benefit not just musicians, songwriters and labels, but all internet users who love music. This joint campaign with Virgin Media is the first step towards achieving that goal".
As much previously reported, the record industry has been increasingly calling on the internet service providers to take a more proactive role in reducing the amount of illegal file sharing of music that takes place on their networks. It has even been suggested ISPs introduce a three strike system where filesharers lose their internet connection if they fail to heed two warnings to stop. Most ISPs aren't keen to take on that role; some, Carphone Warehouse's Talk Talk for example, reacting angrily to suggestions they should. But Virgin has been known to want help the labels in some way for a while, and while initial rumours that meant they were seriously considering the three strike system proved untrue, the latest educational campaign shows that [a] the record companies and ISPs can work together and that [b] Virgin in particular are keen to do so.