New piracy rules could leave ISPs liable

According to report in the Guardian, the campaign against piracy could be moving in a new direction if the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) gets its own way.

In a proposal to stop the illegal copying and downloading of music and films from the internet, BERR is going to make it the responsibility of the internet service providers to stop their customers from visiting unlicensed sites that offer these products.

It is not all bad news for the ISPs, as the government proposes to pay them for every music and film file that their customers download legally.

They could be looking at a potential revenue stream of millions, which is incentive enough for the ISPs to think very hard about this proposal.

BERR is planning on making an announcement early in January, so until then the actual figures will not be known.