Never Mind The Billshock

Let me welcome you to the BPI’s new blog. We’ll be updating it regularly with views and opinions on issues affecting the music industry.



One of the most talked-about issues right now is the Digital Economy Bill and its proposed measures tackling illegal filesharing. You may have seen the recent article in The Daily Mail where TalkTalk boss Charles Dunstone describes the measures as a “copyright crackdown we will all pay for.” Feargal Sharkey from UK Music has responded in the Daily Mail to Charles’ original claims, but I thought it would be useful to share with you BPI’s thoughts on this, in particular on the ISPs’ claims relating to costs.



BPI and its partners in the Creative Coalition Campaign have just released the findings of two independent reports that look at the likely costs to ISPs of setting up and running a notification process as envisaged by the Bill to help prevent illegal filesharing. The evidence from the first report, carried out by Sweet Consulting, shows that total costs to the big five ISPs of sending notifications to music filesharers would be £13.85 million in the first year, around £9m in the second year, and would be likely to drop to £3.4m in the third and subsequent years. [More]