Q&A: UK P2P – Lib Dem MP / Minister of State, BIS

A Liberal Democrat MP asked the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills several copyright related questions which received responses yesterday. They cover ’3 Strikes’, throttling and the impact of both.

Lembit Öpik is the Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire.

Ian Lucas is the Labour MP for Wrexham and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Lembit Öpik asked Ian Lucas the following questions, which received answers yesterday;

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the effectiveness of (a) bandwidth capping and (b) temporary internet account suspension in preventing illegal music file sharing?

A: Both measures are options which could be used to combat unlawful file-sharing of music files. The effectiveness of (a) bandwidth capping would depend on the level of the cap imposed and the aim would be to impose such a level as to severely restrict such activity without unduly impacting on other legitimate internet activities. Temporary account suspension (b) would block all file-sharing. However it would also prevent access to all internet functions and as such is a serious step which would only be used against the most serious infringers.

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the likely effect on internet accounts which have been used to unlawfully file share copyrighted material of the threat of temporary account suspension?

A: The suspension of an internet account is a possible option that might be employed against those subscribers who have been identified as persistently file-sharing material in breach of copyright. There is a mass of industry survey evidence which shows that most subscribers would cease file-sharing activity if they received warning letters backed up with the threat of further enforcement action. Enforcement action in the form of account suspension represents a real, effective and credible deterrent. However it would also block legitimate internet activities and as such is a serious step which would only be used against the most serious infringers.

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the likely costs to internet service providers of compliance with the obligations set out in the Digital Britain report to reduce unlawful file sharing on their networks?

A: The most recent assessment of the likely costs to internet service providers was contained in the Government’s consultation on P2P file-sharing issued on 16 June 2009. The impact assessment calculated the likely costs to ISPs to be between £290-500 million over a 10 year period. This was set against likely benefits in the region of £1.2-1.4 billion.

Q: What is the most recent assessment of the likely effect on consumers of a reduction in the level of unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing on the internet?

A: File-sharing is an activity which requires large amounts of internet bandwidth. Many ISPs already employ traffic management techniques to limit bandwidth-hungry applications at peak times to optimise the performance of their networks.

Any significant reduction in unlawful file-sharing activity could therefore improve average broadband speeds.

A reduction in unlawful file-sharing will be the result of enforcement, education and new commercial deals. We would therefore expect a greater number legal content offers to become available to consumers thereby increasing choice.

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