Yep, I think it is fair to say we are now in phase three of the P2P war - 2008 will be the year when the record industry will try, once and for all, to force the internet service providers to take on more responsibility for policing the ether, blocking the distribution of unlicensed content, and cutting off the people who consistently do the distributing.
As previously reported, the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry made that mission the overriding theme of its digital music report last week, and there has been more tough talking with regard to the ISPs this week down in Cannes where the MIDEM music business convention is now well and truly under way.
Firstly the UK record industry trade body, the BPI, used MIDEM to again call on the ISPs to play ball. Echoing his comments in response to the IFPI report last week, but with ever increasing frustration in his words, BPI chief Geoff Taylor said yesterday: "For years, access to free music has helped to drive ISPs' businesses while they have paid nothing to the creators of that music, and done nothing to help address rampant piracy on their networks. Their wilful blindness is causing tremendous harm to British music, and the music sector, with support from Government, is united in the conviction that the situation must change".
Commenting on the long running behind the scenes negotiations between the music industry and the ISPs, he continued: "For more than a year, we have been negotiating with the [ISPs] to implement reasonable procedures under which they would advise customers if their account is being used to distribute music illegally, and then, if the advice is ignored, enforce their own terms and conditions about abuse of the account. But UK ISPs refuse to do even that on any meaningful scale. The music business wants to partner with ISPs to create new music services that would deliver even greater value for consumers, creators, and to ISPs. An internet that rewards creativity - while offering music lovers unprecedented choice and value for money - is in the long term interest of all of us. The time has come for ISPs to stop dragging their feet and start showing some responsibility, by taking reasonable steps to counter illegal music freeloading. Their failure to do so in until now is extraordinary - and it can't be allowed to go on".
Meanwhile, showing that frustration with the ISPs is not restricted to the recorded music sector, U2 manager Paul McGuinness used his MIDEM speech to talk tough on the issue. As the flagship speaker from the management community at MIDEM this year, McGuiness commanded a full house audience. He told them: "The ISP lobbyists who say they should not have to 'police the internet' are living in the past, relying on outdated excuses from an earlier technological age. The internet has moved on, and the pace of change today means a year in the internet age is equivalent to a decade in the non-internet world".
He continued: "Network operators, in particular, have for too long had a free ride on music - on our clients' content. It's time for a new approach - time for ISPs to start taking responsibility for the content they've profited from for years. I think the failure of ISPs to engage in the fight against piracy, to date, has been the single biggest failure in the digital music market. They are the gatekeepers with the technical means to make a far greater impact on mass copyright violation than the tens of thousands of lawsuits taken out against individual file-sharers by bodies like BPI, RIAA and IFPI. And the message to government is this: ISP responsibility is not a luxury for possible contemplation in the future. It is a necessity for implementation TODAY - by legislation if voluntary means fail".