American rapper 50 Cent has already stated that piracy is part of music marketing. Now a UK ISP reveals that fighting piracy costs far more than piracy itself.

British music labels claim losses of up to £200 million a year due to piracy. Their lobbying has prompted UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson to propose forcing ISPs to monitor their networks on behalf of the labels. British Telecom consumer division head John Petter objects that such monitoring would actually cost £365 million a year. BT would have no choice but to pass that expense to consumers, raising everyone’s broadband bill by £24 per month.

Of course, the fact that the labels’ £200 million figure is rubbish makes the added expense of fighting piracy even more ridiculous. As Petter puts it, “Their claims are melodramatic and assume people would buy all the music that is illegally downloaded, which is nonsense.”

Now here’s the question you must answer, dear law-abiding Internet user: are you willing to shell out your hard-earned money to protect the music labels’ dying business models?

Originally posted on September 26, 2009 @ 6:03 am