UK ISPs to start sending warning letters to ‘pirates’

A group of UK internet service providers (ISPs) will start sending written warnings to account holders suspected of accessing illegally shared copyrighted files.

The ISPs are Sky, BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

It is part of Creative Content UK (CCUK), a public education campaign and programme of email alerts sent by ISPs to residential broadband subscribers when their account is used to infringe copyright.

CCUK acts as a promoter of the ‘Get it Right from a Genuine Site’ campaign, which is due to start in the coming weeks.

The ISPs will send out educational emails as part of the campaign.

The aim of ‘Get it Right from a Genuine Site’ is to educate consumers about the “wide range” of legal sources of content available to them, and to promote awareness of the value of creative content and the copyright which underpins it.

If a residential broadband subscriber’s internet connection has been used to “illicitly” share files that contain copyright content with others, the account holder may be sent an email by their ISP.

This email will outline the detail of the file, as well as the date and time that it was shared, with the ultimate aim being to help account owners and others who use the accounts to do the “right thing” and “get their content from legitimate sources”.

A spokesperson for the ‘Get it Right from a Genuine Site’ campaign said that in its first phase the campaign reached one in five members of the general population. It is also seeing encouraging progress among 16-24 year olds’ attitudes to online piracy, with six out of ten admitting to accessing less content from piracy sites and sources than 12 months earlier.

A spokesperson from Virgin Media told TBO: “Virgin Media, along with all of the other major UK internet providers, is working with the UK’s creative industries through Creative Content UK.

“Virgin Media and other ISPs will soon begin sending educational emails to customers who are associated with illegal file-sharing and direct to them to a dedicated website with a list of genuine sources of where they, and others who use their account, can legally access movies, music, TV shows, books, newspapers, games and sports.”

They added: “Emails sent by ISPs will be purely educational and no customer details will be shared with rights holders, government or other third parties.”