Dear Ross

Your questions now seem to fall into the realms of those that only solicitors can answer but I will try to answer those that I can.

And for those forum readers that do not live in the UK I will apologise now for being very UK orientated.

First, we are both on the same page about IP addresses, nothing more needs to be said on this subject.

ISPs, like everyone else, are governed by the Data Protection Act, they cannot give out your information, which is confidential, unless they have your permission, suspect illegal activity or ordered to do so by a court order.

However, there are some ISPs (like BT) that will warn you about your internet usage (downloads and uploads) and will take action against you if you do not immediately comply with their request.

This happened to me, I once had a BT dial-up connection and, one Saturday, I got an email saying that my internet usage was excessive. Although I said that this was not my fault, at the time it my son was doing a lot of downloading, they still cut me off, as I was the one paying the monthly subs I was the one that got punished (I hate BT).

The next two points I will put together, i.e. Family Computer and Human Rights.

Ross, you know as well as I do, to mount a legal defence against the record industry, based on Human Rights, is a non starter. If they obtain a court order to get your details from your ISP then you don’t have a leg to stand on, they are within their rights under the law to protect their (intellectual) property just like you are entitled to protect your household and possessions.

Beside, trying to mount a legal defence against the record industry could be very expensive and, because you are not likely to get legal aid, you could end up loosing your house and all you hold dear. You would be better off pleading guilty and paying the imposed fine, the alternative just isn't worth it.

Besides, the HRA cannot protect you if you are suspected of committing an illegal act or know of an illegal act being committed under your roof.

However, I could be totally wrong, I am not a solicitor or have anything to do with the legal profession, if you really feel strongly about this matter then you should seek proper legal advice, that generally should cost you under £100.00.

As for the music industry flexing it's muscles, yes they are and I, like you, don’t like it one little bit.

Going off track for a minute, there are a lot of viruses and Trojans being released onto the P2P networks at the moment. And being the paranoid person I am, I suspect that the record industry is trying to cripple the network, plant Trojans to identify P2P users or both. Just as the music industry employs companies to flood the network with fake files I believe they also employing miscreants to flood the network with Trojans (rant over – check out PeerGuardian 2 and see how many companies PG stops from crawling into your PC via port 6346).

Finally (now back on track), the record industry has always wanted to control the methods of distribution and, especially in the UK, ration what we can hear, buy and the retail price we pay in the shops. We, in the UK, have always paid higher prices for our goods than anywhere else. Lots of companies like this because, as price paid bears no relation to cost of production, we provide them with high profits for minimum outlay. Mind you, as residence of this country we have accepted this stupid situation for far too long, non progressive companies, like the RI, are fighting tooth and nail to keep things static. Hence the comment, “it is to protect the market model", i.e. protect their profits by enforcing the high price we pay.

Solution, buy your CDs and DVDs via the internet that way you will get the cheapest price and the best quality.



UK Bob