I heard and read some pretty scary news yesterday which the BBC and the Times published. According to them, we now have a 3 strike policy in the U.K regarding illegal downloading. The fact is, we don't, and here's numerous reasons why.

1. No law has been passed to enforce this. It was a draft proposal only. Even worse it was a green paper, so it's about as useful to the government as a piece of bog roll with a hole in it. Makes you wonder why the story was ever published doesn't it? If this isn't reason enough for you, then I'll continue.

2. It's impossible to enforce, if it were actually being enforced...which it's not. ISP's can't possibly monitor every packet going through their servers, and why would they want to start banning their customers? Are you trying to tell me that people need a 20MB connection to read their emails? No, they don't, so don't ever think your ISP will ban you for using the service they provide to you.

3. It's impossible to tell the difference between legal and illegal downloads. Simple as. P2P and BitTorrent can be used for legal and illegal sharing. What about online gaming VoIP etc etc.

4. It would break EU laws for the ISP to do this.

5. Unsecured wi-fi connections aren't a rarity. How does the ISP prove it was you who downloaded something? They can't.

6. Encrypted packets are being used more and more. People can browse and download anonymously. There's no way of knowing who's downloading what. Plus, if the ISP's were to go ahead and enforce this policy, then all the downloaders would move to encrypted services, putting them back at square one.

7. How can you create an e-enabled society if your ISP is banning the very people who use it?

Basically, the music and film industry should stop shoving their weight around and they should stop using their power and money to force governments to make laws which suit them. For now, continue as you are!

Update: 16/2/08
Nice to see the BBC agreeing with me