In a bold move that could set negative precedent for other countries, the British government plans to go after British ISPs for file sharing instead of their customers. The hope is that the ISPs will then file the lawsuits against the customers to recoup the cost of dealing with the ISP, and also that ISPs will begin to track and throttle customers in earnest. (Currently an ISP called ComCast is under the gun of the FCC in America for throttling and blocking its customers.)

I’m sure the RIAA is following this and salivating. Imagine how much easier it could make their unwarranted collections efforts lawsuits in other countries! All of the cash and none of the burden of proof, not that they bother with burden of proof now.

The British government also plans to make the penalties for illegal file sharing much stiffer and tighten online copyright law in general. There are many reasons why these laws are bad aside from the obvious precedent setting one with the RIAA. In order to find and punish infringers, the ISP (and possibly the government if ISPs refuse to comply should a law be enacted) would have to be allowed to spy on an ISP’s users.

Spying on users by either the ISP or the government creates privacy infringements with a host of negative ripple effects possible, in Britain and in other countries. In America privacy groups are already ardently pursuing President Bush and several major telecommunications companies for spying on internet users and telephone conversations without warrants that began following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Britain isn’t the only country trying to handle ever growing concerns about piracy. France recently enacted a law that would allow it to ban illegal downloaders from having internet access. Denmark recently blocked BitTorrent associated sites from all internet users in their country, which affects legal and illegal file sharers. Comcast in the United States was recently under the microscope of the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) for admitting to using hacker techniques to control and monitor user internet usage and block sites like BitTorrent.

Internet piracy and privacy are two concerns that often pose opposing views and issues. Instead of monitoring, censorship and control, however; perhaps a new business model is the answer that taps into the great desire for online content and the not-so-deep pockets of most people. Offer low cost online solutions to major software and entertainment file needs or go Open Source instead of creating privacy issues that will plague future generations.

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