Virgin, Universal, and pirates
Universal Music agrees to unlimited downloads if Virgin kicks illegal downloaders offline
What happened
Universal Music Group, the world’s top record label, agreed to a music-download service with British cable TV and broadband provider Virgin Media that will give subscribers unlimited DRM-free downloads of Universal’s entire catalogue. In return, Virgin will adopt new anti-piracy measures, including temporarily suspending offending clients’ Internet service. (The New York Times)
What the commentators said
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The “first-of-its-kind” monthly subscription deal certainly sounds attractive, said Richard Koman in ZDNet, but making Virgin and other Internet service providers into “police dogs for the copyright industry” does not. Not only does it make the ISPs treat its customers like “criminals,” but “ISP spying” is also a “gross violation” of the ISP-consumer contract.
Consumers may not care, said Matt Rosoff in CNET News, if the price is right. Universal and other labels won’t settle for less than they get through iTunes, but “what’s fair to the industry may not seem fair to users, who have been downloading free music for almost a decade now.” If customers don’t get some other “tangible benefit,” like iTunes has with iPod connectivity, “a clear conscience and less chance of being sued” won’t be enough.
The unlimited service should cost a little less than two CDs a month, said Music Ally, but there will also be lower-priced set-downloads plans. And the “controversial” agreement to cut off pirates’ Internet service might also include “less interventionist measures” such as browser redirects from file-sharing sites and bandwidth throttling. If Virgin and Universal balance the carrots and sticks, this might just work.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Hamas frees US hostage in deal sidelining Israel
speed read Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier, was the final living US citizen held by the militant group
-
White Afrikaners land in US as Trump-declared refugees
speed read An exception was made to Trump's near-total ban on admitting refugees for the white South Africans
-
RFK Jr.: A new plan for sabotaging vaccines
Feature The Health Secretary announced changes to vaccine testing and asks Americans to 'do your own research'