British Recording Industry & ISP Cooperating

Well, this sounds ominous (from the Guardian):

From next week, Virgin Media will send letters to thousands of households where music is either being downloaded or illegally shared. Many of the recipients are likely to be the unsuspecting parents of teenagers who hoard free downloads offered by file-sharing services. Research shows the majority of them are unaware their children are breaking the law.[...]

Virgin has stopped short of threatening any of its 3.5 million subscribers with disconnection, saying it first wants to “educate” customers during a 10-week trial campaign. Their letters will, however, be accompanied by a stern written warning from the BPI, which will threaten both disconnection and a court appearance for those who continue to download illegally.

I of course don’t condone theft of intellectual property (especially now that the entertainment industry has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century), but surely someone will soon notice that the means of detecting illegal file-sharing is hardly foolproof.

I suppose it could be worse.  They could be imposing 5GB download caps, like those of us with Sprint cell modems are preparing to live with.