U2’s long term manager Paul McGuiness penned an article for The Daily Telegraphwebsite last week in which he claimed that the end of the free digital music era is nigh, thanks to internet service providers (ISPs) in North America finally embracing their “obligation” to prevent “copyright thefts on their networks.”

North American ISPs are due to install a system of “copyright alerts” for those who download music (or any other media) by illegal means. Those who ignore such warnings can expect to face “deterrent sanctions” (nice and vague!) France began tackling the problem of illegal file sharing similarly back in 2007 and it would appear that ISPs in the UK will soon follow suit also, thanks to the government’s recent passing of 2010’s Digital Economy Act.

The “deterrent sanctions” may not be consistent across different countries but it is obvious that such repercussions will need to be harsh to see them have significant effect and force the majority of consumers to switch to legitimate ways of acquiring digital files. As a regular user of BitTorrent, it is obvious that I would be unwelcoming of such changes being implemented in the UK.

I am sure that I am not the only person who often relies on the joy of music to soften the blows that life can bring. The cost of living continues to increase whilst our pay packets do not however and this can make it incredibly hard for me to build upon my own CD collection (I actually prefer owning CDs above music downloads). I would like to point out that I do not just steal music via torrents – I buy CDs whenever I am not staring into the abyss of bad credit and I also have a Premium subscription to music streaming service Spotify.

Spotify is one such service which is likely to be encouraged in the wake of ISP copyright crackdown initiatives. It is worth pointing out that this once fully ad-supported (and therefore free) service moved into a subscription model earlier this year whilst concurrently severely restricting the amount of music that users continuing to use the free version of the service can listen to.

Despite the fact that the Spotify service is no doubt a fantastic one that offers impressive value for money (debit or credit cards are charged just £9.99 a month to access a colossal jukebox!) there are some significant artists and albums missing from its catalogue. Just a few that I personally wish I could access through the service include the AC/DC, Metallica and Tool discographies, mewithoutYou’s ‘Brother, Sister’, Reuben’s ‘In Nothing We Trust’ and Pendulum’s ‘Hold Your Colour.’ If I want to hear a particular track or album that I do not currently own on CD and is also not available via Spotify, I am left with little choice but to turn to Google to hunt out a live torrent for said music.

I argue that this is fair enough (but I would, wouldn’t I!) I contend though, that the more music I am exposed to, the higher the amount of money that I am likely to put back into the industry via the purchasing of gig and festival tickets and merchandise - which, funnily enough, are the arms that bands and artists tend to make the most profit from.  

Admittedly though, there are some individuals who take the piss and download more music than they could ever possibly listen to and/or torrent despite the fact that their bank accounts are heaving. Whilst I would like UK ISPs to implement an “illegal torrent cap” on their customers (perhaps allowing each to download a maximum of 2GBs via torrents each month), this is incredibly unlikely, for it would suggest that the ISPs condone such behaviour.

The ISPs should work with consumers on this issue instead of against them considering that 95% of music downloads are of the illegal variety according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) – this fact could equate to a hell of a lot of (arguably pointless) punishments and/or arrests!

Usually, when there is a will, there is a way and so if ISPs do implement torrent-blocking legislation, the computer nerds of the world will find a way to get around and/or disguise the fact that we’re all torrenting.

Hopefully…