Infinite Path

The battle against illegal file sharing is set to gather pace. The bodies in charge of monitoring this sort of activity believe that softer measures will take time to implement. Instead, tough sanctions against repeat offenders will be put in place in the hope that this will dissuade many other lesser offenders.

Internet service providers will be expected to enforce and action many of the punishments. These include such extreme measures as suspending internet connection, reducing download speeds and blocking access to certain popular file sharing sites.

Creative industries including music and film have long been campaigning for these sorts of measures. They feel that illegal file sharing is seriously harming their industry and without proper rules in place, it will be harder and harder to continue.

Peter Mandelson, the business secretary, is now under fire for caving in to lobbyists and taking such drastic action. He had, however, received equal pressure from music and film production representatives for an extreme reform over the current rules and regulations.

The availability of free information on the internet is starting to become a problem. Many publishers of content online are facing the harsh reality that revenue streams are drying up. Music and video sharing are part of this issue online as well.

Because of the culture born out of the internet, where an openness of information and sharing has become the norm, people are finding it difficult to make the transition to a legislated way of using the web and everything it has to offer.

Internet users are going to have to get used to a change in attitudes towards the free supply of information and content, as the ease with which people can share music, film and software is going to have to be tightly regulated in the future.