See here.
The long arm of statism grows yet again; next thing they'll do is stop me lending DVDs to my mates because it infringes copyright.
More worryingly if the government can force service providers for cutting someone's access for doing something the state doesn't like I bet we'll get some more resons to cut your access off by the back door ie. visting subversive, extremist (anarchist) sites.
The atoms tell the atoms so, for I never was or will but atoms forevermore be.
Yours sincerely,
Physiocrat
Physiocrat:next thing they'll do is stop me lending DVDs to my mates because it infringes copyright.
The irony here is that these measures are completely unenforceable. These new laws are made by computer illiterate governments, who don't realise the scale of their own projects. How can an ISP check every packet transmitted to see if it's copyrighted? And what about encrypted packets? Last I checked, most torrent systems encrypted all their packets, so it's beyond me how they plan to implement this. No wonder the ISPs can't come to an agreement with the music industry - it's impossible! And what's more, it's illegal. As you said, this is the proverbial foot in the door. They'll find any premise to censor the internet, big brother style.
But let's assume for a second that this was possible, and that this was done. First, the music industry is using the government to create a de jure monopoly. Second, these people never look at the reasons for piracy. Maybe it's because the music nowadays sucks? Maybe it's because charging 10 euros for a single is equivalent to buying 4 pizzas at my local shop? Maybe, just maybe, the people pirating music would never have bought it if they had to pay for it. At least this way, the artists get free advertising.
If this ever goes through and they quell piracy (and trust me, they won't) then I will enjoy the surprise on the music industries' face when their conventional sales don't change. People have morals, and are NOT just driven by economic incentives. I would never pirate my favourite bands and artists, because I feel they earned the money with their talent. The only people pirating are those that can't afford to otherwise, or those that are downloading music they would never buy.
Anti-piracy ad campaign from the 80's:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Free Software Foundation