UK Ministers consider file sharing 'broadband tax'

Households could face higher broadband bills to pay for the cost of illegal downloads from the internet, under plans being considered by ministers.

 

A new agency will be set up in the UK to look at how the issue of online "piracy" should be tackled suggests a major report to be released next week .

One of the proposals being studied is a universal levy on broadband bills, imposed at customers level, to compensate film and music companies for their losses from illegal downloads. 

Lord Carter, the Communications Minister, who is to unveil his new report setting out his vision for Digital Britain, is  considering the plan.

Lobbying for the fee to be introduced, the entertainment industry estimates it will lose £1 billion over the next five years due to piracy.

It is thought that Lord Carter, although said to be sympathetic to the proposals,  will stop short of explicitly backing the plan for fear of slowing his drive for universal broadband across the United Kingdom by 2012 . It is widely agreed, he will order the setting up the new "Rights Agency" to find a long term solution to the problem.

Representatives from the music and film industry, as well as consumer groups and the internet service providers (ISPs) will make up this new body, who will need to find a way of appeasing consumer groups who strongly resist the prospect of higher broadband prices.

• The BPI, the voice of the British music industry, claims that the sector lost £180 million to online music piracy in 2008.
  
• The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) estimates over 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008.
  

Several inititatives have been launched to tackle the problem of the estimated six million plus illegal filesharers in Britain, most  who are under 24. 

Last year a scheme was announced which saw parents of teenagers who download music illegally targeted by Britain's six largest ISPs including BT, Virgin Media and Orange.

The firms agreed to write to hundreds of thousands of customers whose accounts were being used to download or share pirated songs.

This led to letters beinging sent to many unsuspecting parents, of a generation of children who, have come to see music as a free commodity,  thanks to illegal filesharing services

The report is expected to say that attempts to stop file transfers of illegal file from unathorised website, many of which are offshore, have largely failed. It will point to the lacklustre nature of a pilot scheme in which ISPs were told to order websites using its platform to sell illegal downloads to stop cease their activities. As a result Lord Carter will say that internet service providers will have to pass on a customer's information if there is legal action against pirates. However, the ISPs will not be liable for what they have done.

A report this week disclosed that the digital music industry is now worth £2.5 billion after growing by an estimated 25 per cent in 2008. However illegal file-sharing accounted for 95 per cent of all downloads last year.

The industry it is likely to back the new plans, but they fear they do not go far enough, insisting that a premium added to the broadband packages, which would then be distributed to the industry to cover the losses, would be the way forward. That objective will be central to Carter's  report. He believes that the country is at a "turning point" and needs to fully embrace the broadband revolution. Lord Carter is expected to call for universal access in time for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

"We know that Lord Carter is sympathetic, but he is also very keen not to jeopardise his stated aim of ensuring every household in Britain has broadband." Quoted one industry insider.