While the entertainment industry dreams of booting heavy P2P users from ISP networks (ignoring the fact these are potential customers), ISPs don't want the extra cost of playing content babysitter. ISPs like citing a 2008 UK study that claims 72% of P2P users would stop with just a warning, or a similar 2009 study that puts that number closer to 64%. Of course the data seems a little suspect, given that ISPs have been forwarding toothless DMCA letters for years, with only explosive P2P growth to show for it.

A new study suggests that 67% would simply ignore the letters -- though 80% would pay attention if the letter was accompanied by a threat of disconnection. The problem has been there's simply too many holes in the idea. Smaller ISPs can't afford to play copyright cop, nobody seems to know who'd track repeat offenders across ISPs, and the DMCA notification system is notoriously unreliable. What's more, it doesn't seem like losing connectivity to the Internet is a suitable punishment for repeatedly trading in House MD episodes.

A better solution over booting potential customers from the Internet? Keep working on inexpensive, high-quality ways to deliver the content they're looking for, suggests the study. Perhaps even working with ISPs to offer different tiers of service that offer different levels of unlimited access to content:

Men aged 20-34 asked in the survey said they would pay ?48 ($80) per month for (access to unlimited media content). Women aged 25-34 would pay up to ?39 ($65) per month. On average, suggests the research, web users would pay ?26 ($43) per month to keep access to their favourite form of online content.

Of course instead of realizing they have new business models to explore, the entertainment industry will certainly use this latest study to suggest that their three strikes idea is necessary.
DeathKnell Reviewed by DeathKnell on . 67% Of Pirates Would Ignore Warning Letters While the entertainment industry dreams of booting heavy P2P users from ISP networks (ignoring the fact these are potential customers), ISPs don't want the extra cost of playing content babysitter. ISPs like citing a 2008 UK study that claims 72% of P2P users would stop with just a warning, or a similar 2009 study that puts that number closer to 64%. Of course the data seems a little suspect, given that ISPs have been forwarding toothless DMCA letters for years, with only explosive P2P growth Rating: 5