Britain will impose legislation on Internet service providers by April 2009 if they do not work with the music and film industries to curb illegal downloading, the government said Friday.
The British government released a strategy paper to address the problem of
The paper said the government still prefers a voluntary solution but said it will start consulting on possible legislation later this year.
The move follows a decision by the French government to ban access to the Internet for those who repeatedly download material illegally and follows years of
Industry estimates put the number of broadband users in Britain who download files illegally at around 6 million.
"Within the space of only four months, two governments, in France and Britain, have now embraced the simple idea that
"This is a sea-change in attitude."
The ISPs would prefer a voluntary agreement and argue that as mere conduits, it is not their place to police the Internet.
But the government has been moved to act to give a boost to the country's creative industries. Global music sales were down around 10 percent in 2007 and the industry estimates that tens of billions of illegal tracks were swapped online in the year.
Britain's leading Internet service providers include BT, Virgin Media, Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali, BSkyB, and Orange.
©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.
