internet service providers

While I don't think that passing laws in favor of net neutrality is necessarily the right way to go about things, it really is amazing to watch anti-net neutrality types completely make up bogus arguments in favor of their position.

We pointed this out exactly two years ago, when lobbyist Mike McCurry wrote a blatantly bogus editorial, claiming that Google didn't pay a cent for its broadband bills, and that it was arguing in favor of net neutrality to avoid having to pay for broadband.

A hardline letter sent by the BPI at the 11th hour threatened to undermine a deal to tackle illegal file-sharing, prompting the government to express its displeasure of the music industry body in a terse response to record label executives.

The BPI's letter, signed by the body's chief executive, Geoff Taylor, was sent to Baroness Vadera, the business minister; the UK's six biggest internet service providers; and the Motion Picture Association of America, the Hollywood studios' trade organisation.

This month's announcement of a back-room deal between ISPs (internet service providers) and the big record companies to spy on suspected copyright infringers and reduce the quality of their internet connections is just the latest paragraph in the record industry's long, self-pitying suicide note, and it's left me wishing they'd just pull the trigger already and stop beating their chests and tell us all how unfair i

The government has set a secret target to reduce illegal filesharing of music and films by up to 80% over the next three years, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

The agreement between internet service providers, the government, and the music industry to send angry letters to music fans who are downloading free music is a smokescreen, intended to obscure the crisis the record industry is facing.

Internet service providers have pledged not to "spy" on the web habits of customers as part of an agreement with the government to punish illegal sharing of music and films.

Fears have been raised after six of the UK's biggest ISPs agreed with the government, music industry body the BPI and the Motion Picture Association to significantly reduce illegal filesharing in the UK within three years.

Paul Brindley, managing director of Music Ally, answers questions on the wider implications of the government's plans to monitor filesharers.

What does today's announcement about downloading actually mean?

Internet service providers have struck a deal with government and the music industry to help clamp down on illegal downloading.

The deal, to be announced later today, is thought to include an agreement for ISPs to send out hundreds of thousands of letters to account holders responsible for illegal downloading.

The memorandum of understanding, struck with the BPI, the body that represents record labels, and the government, will be announced today ahead of the launch of a consultation on the introduction of legislation to clampdown on offending.

Thousands of parents will learn of their children's illegal downloading habits when warning letters arrive at their homes in a battle against internet piracy.

A government-backed drive is targeting the worst offenders of the estimated 6.5 million web users involved in illicit file-sharing of music and films.

Britain's six largest internet service providers, or ISPs, have joined the scheme, amid estimates that the practice could cost the music industry £1bn in the next five years.

Small niche internet service providers and BT - and their customers - will be the early beneficiaries of the telecoms giant's announcement on Tuesday that it will spend £1.5bn to install new fibre-optic cables to reach the streets, and in a small number of cases the walls, of 10m homes.